Odor

FiresSykesville: Firefighters responded at 11: 25 p.m. Saturday to a pole fire in the 6500 block of Carrolltown Village Road. Units were out 25 minutes.Sykesville: Firefighters from Sykesville, Gamber, Winfield and West Friendship, Howard County, responded at 9: 07 p.m. Saturday to an odor of smoke in a townhouse in the 900 block of Lorimel Road. Units were out 20 minutes.Gamber: Firefighters responded at 8: 57 p.m. Saturday to investigate an odor of propane in the 1000 block of Klee Mill Road.

Something smells funny in Clarksville. A few residents have complained of a nauseating, pungent odor from the area of Maryland 108 and Sheppard Lane to Howard County's health department, said spokeswoman Lisa DeHernandez. She said the department's community hygiene program conducted a search of the area Wednesday and found the source to be coming from fertilizer on a large farm. They received the same calls last year, she said. They expect rain to reduce the stench. In the meantime, DeHernandez said, the farmer will be asked to wet the perimeter areas of the property to help reduce the odor but, because agricultural properties are mostly exempt from nuisance codes, there's no requirement or enforcement measures that the department can take.

The strong smell of human feces that residents of the upscale Villas of Cattail Creek say sporadically seeps out of their new community sewage treatment plant is just the latest indignity after the nearly five years without a working sewage system that preceded it. "It's just never-ending," said Renee Parcover, one of the 55-and-older residents of what was intended to be an idyllic group of 93 retirement homes next to a country club and golf course in...

The Maryland-Virginia Milk Producers Cooperative has violated a state order to control waste dumping at its North Laurel plant, at a time when residents complain that foul odors that led to fines against the plant last year have returned."

FEMA agrees to hear more requests for storm-damage aid Twenty coastal communities in Anne Arundel County that were damaged by Tropical Storm Isabel can apply for grant money to repair roads and storm-water management facilities, state officials announced yesterday. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was denying requests for assistance from homeowners associations in the communities, arguing that proposed repairs would benefit only residents of the communities, not the public at large.

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- "Strong odor -- next four miles -- do not stop -- keep moving."That's the message motorists get from flashing signs on a stretch of Florida's Turnpike near the Yeehaw Junction exit.This is one smell you don't want a whiff of. In fact, the air near this southern Osceola County town is so foul this week that at least two people got sick, prompting the state to action."We put those up to keep people from stopping there, possibly inhaling it and getting sick," Kim Poulton, a Turnpike spokeswoman, said yesterday.

A health inspector investigating complaints of a foul odor discovered a badly decomposed body wedged inside a chimney at the Kent Linens Warehouse Outlet in Highlandtown, police say.Workers at the store in the 3500 block of Eastern Ave. had been bothered by the smell for several months but had been unable to locate its source until yesterday, when the Baltimore Health Department was called in to investigate."

Baltimore County police and fire crews responded Monday to a report of potentially hazardous materials in a rowhouse in the Parkville-Hillendale area. Officer Shawn Vinson, a spokesman for the police department, said that shortly after 5 p.m. officers began investigating a 911 report of a strong odor coming from the basement of a residence in the 8300 block of Ridgely Oak Road. Vinson said the county's bomb squad was called to the scene as a precaution. The incident was largely concluded by 8:30 p.m., with no one injured and no property damaged, according to Vinson and Capt.

Furious neighbors of the state's only regional yard-waste composting facility have besieged the Maryland Department of the Environment in recent weeks, complaining that resumed operation of the Howard County yard has brought unbearable stenches.Residents have called in more than 100 complaints within the past 30 days, prompting state officials to re-evaluate their earlier position not to issue violation notices while the Dorsey yard's operator tried to fix odor problems that had led to 14 citations.

Furious neighbors of the state's only regional yard waste composting facility have besieged the Maryland Department of the Environment in recent weeks, complaining that resumed operations at the Dorsey yard have brought unbearable stenches.Residents have called in more than 100 complaints in the past 30 days, prompting state officials to re-evaluate their earlier position of not issuing violation notices while the yard's operator tried to fix odor problems that had led to 14 citations.After more than two months, "we believe sufficient time has passed," said Quentin Banks, MDE spokesman.