Oil Spill

Imagine a barge running aground off Thomas Point, spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Chesapeake Bay and coating vegetation and wildlife in the area for miles.Anne Arundel County's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is preparing for such a disaster by building an oil-spill cleanup lab to care for wildlife caught in such an event. Using $200,000 in grants and private funding, the SPCA is developing the new center, to be called the Nature Center, which will include the oil-spill cleanup facility as well as exhibits and workshops that will educate students about the bay and the environment, David Branchini, executive director of the SPCA, said.

WASHINGTON -- Fresh from California, where the crash of a ship spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the San Francisco Bay, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings is asking state and federal officials about preparedness should a similar disaster strike Maryland. The Baltimore Democrat, who chairs the House subcommittee on the Coast Guard and maritime transportation, has written to Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and the commandant of the Coast Guard with questions about how quickly local and state authorities would be notified of a spill, who would respond and how recently they've conducted a drill to practice.

CHICAGO -- Oil giant BP PLC agreed to pay $373 million in fines and admit to criminal wrongdoing in a sweeping settlement of charges linked to a fatal Texas explosion, an oil spill in Alaska and illegal propane trading engineered from Chicago. In addition, a Chicago grand jury indicted four former BP employees on 20 counts of mail and wire fraud connected to the alleged fixing of prices in the propane market in February 2004. The scheme, allegedly involving huge purchases of propane and delayed deliveries through a pipeline serving the East Coast, pushed propane prices as high as 94 cents a gallon.

TATITLEK, Alaska -- It was a few minutes after midnight when the big ship fetched up on Bligh Reef in the icy waters of Prince William Sound. And even today, nearing the 10th anniversary of one of the nation's worst environmental disasters, the oil spill by Exxon Valdez, which is barred by law from ever returning, is in many ways still here.In environmental terms, the sound is still recovering, according to a report issued recently by the joint federal and state council that monitors the continuing effects of the tanker accident, which dumped at least 10.8 million gallons of North Slope crude into the sound and blackened 1,500 miles of the Gulf of Alaska coastline.

SEATTLE -- A federal appeals court will hear arguments today that the jury that awarded more than $5 billion in damages in the Exxon Valdez oil spill was tainted by a bailiff who pulled out his gun and joked about putting a holdout juror "out of her misery."The same juror, who attempted suicide three weeks after the verdict, alleged she was threatened by other jurors and by the bailiff, who was forced to resign from the U.S. Marshals Service after admitting he had offered his gun and a bullet to one of the jurors and had improperly socialized with the jury.

FireSykesville: Firefighters from Winfield and Gamber assisted Sykesville at 10: 33 a.m. Friday, responding to an oil spill in the 6200 block of Sykesville Road. Units were out one hour and 28 minutes.Pub Date: 4/14/98

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking a $10,000 fine from Giant Food Inc. for a 4,000-gallon oil spill at the Jessup Distribution Center that emptied into Dorsey Run six months ago.EPA officials issued the administrative complaint Tuesday against the Washington-based supermarket chain for violating the Clean Water Act.Giant officials called the incident an isolated one."It was an accident," said Barry F. Scher, a spokesman for Giant. "The problem was cleaned up, and we are taking steps to make sure that it never happens again."

The SPCA of Anne Arundel County wants help paying for a facility it falsely claims is unique in this area.The nonprofit Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is seeking government grants, corporate gifts and private donations -- in addition to selling bricks in a memorial pathway for $150 each -- to help repay $200,000 it borrowed to finance its new Oiled Wildlife Rescue Facility."

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Pete Kompkoff and the other villagers of Chenega know perfectly well that when the Exxon Valdez hemorrhaged oil onto their shores, it was the crew that was at fault, not the ship.But they are not about to sit back silently in the coming weeks as Exxon Corp. seeks permission in U.S. District Court here for the tanker, renamed the Mediterranean, to return to Prince William Sound, where in 1989 it unleashed one of the nation's worst environmental disasters."It's just like a slap in the face, even though the machine didn't do the damage," said Kompkoff, administrator of the 28-house village tucked onto an island that is one small puzzle piece in the white-and-blue jigsaw of the sparsely populated sound.

HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED over the past few years for Longwell Run, the tiny stream that meanders through the eastern part of Westminster along Railroad Avenue before reaching the Patapsco River.For a decade, protection of that creek from chemical pollution and refuse dumping was the singular obsession of private citizen Monroe G. Haines, who walked the stream almost daily to look for signs of deterioration. He inspired formation of a volunteer task force four years ago, which then pressed for government action.

A person who broke into an East Baltimore company and opened a valve to a tanker holding nearly 6,000 gallons of olive oil caused a spill that marred the harbor's waters and could take days to clean, authorities said yesterday. Baltimore police and state environmental officials believe someone broke into Pompeian Olive Oil Co. in the 4200 block of Pulaski Highway and opened the valve. It's unclear what the intruder's motives were, authorities said. The extra-virgin oil ran from the plastic-lined steel container into a storm drain, flowing for two miles into the harbor near Boston Avenue and Linwood streets in Canton.

WASHINGTON -- Fresh from California, where the crash of a ship spilled 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel into the San Francisco Bay, U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings is asking state and federal officials about preparedness should a similar disaster strike Maryland. The Baltimore Democrat, who chairs the House subcommittee on the Coast Guard and maritime transportation, has written to Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley and the commandant of the Coast Guard with questions about how quickly local and state authorities would be notified of a spill, who would respond and how recently they've conducted a drill to practice.

CHICAGO -- Oil giant BP PLC agreed to pay $373 million in fines and admit to criminal wrongdoing in a sweeping settlement of charges linked to a fatal Texas explosion, an oil spill in Alaska and illegal propane trading engineered from Chicago. In addition, a Chicago grand jury indicted four former BP employees on 20 counts of mail and wire fraud connected to the alleged fixing of prices in the propane market in February 2004. The scheme, allegedly involving huge purchases of propane and delayed deliveries through a pipeline serving the East Coast, pushed propane prices as high as 94 cents a gallon.

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A Coast Guard official said Saturday that an oil spill this month in the Savannah River has turned out to be much larger than originally thought after two weeks of assessment. Petty Officer Bobby Nash, a spokesman for the Coast Guard District 7, said the spill is estimated to be between 20,000 and 22,000 gallons, about 15,000 gallons more than the previous estimate. Nash said the source of the July 17 spill that shut down a 12-mile stretch of the river and part of the Intracoastal Waterway remains unknown.

Amendments to taxes proposed Carroll County staff recently presented proposed amendments to Chapter 209 (Taxation) of the County Code to the commissioners. The proposed amendments would provide a local supplement to the Homeowners Property Tax Credit Program for county residents 65 or older. Criteria include that a homeowner's combined net worth may not exceed $500,000, combined annual income may not exceed $50,000, the assessed value of the home may not exceed $300,000, and net worth excludes qualified retirement plans.

The thing about a little fib is that it makes you wonder what bigger fibs might lie behind it. Last week, for example, five top oil company executives went to Capitol Hill to explain that their record-high profits this fall were not their doing, but flowed from the immutable laws of supply and demand. We"re thinking, well, maybe - and then comes a report in Wednesday's Washington Post that something else they all agreed on just wasn't true. In answer to a seemingly minor question, they said their companies hadn't taken part in Vice President Dick Cheney's closed-door energy policy meetings back in 2001, but a White House document shows otherwise.

Northbound and southbound lanes of Interstate 95 in White Marsh were shut down yesterday afternoon after a fuel-tank truck carrying waste oil erupted in flames and spilled about 1,000 gallons of used waste oil onto the side of the highway, Maryland State Police and environmental officials said. No one was injured, but traffic was backed up for about eight miles in each direction from about 2:15 p.m. to about 4:45 p.m., when all but one lane southbound was reopened, said Lt. Bud Frank, a state police spokesman.

The State of Maryland has fined Potomac Electric Power Co. and Support Terminal Services almost $2 million in civil penalties for an April 2000 oil spill on the Patuxent River that fouled 80 acres of wetlands and shoreline and killed thousands of fish and wildlife. In the settlement agreement, announced yesterday by the Maryland Department of the Environment, Pepco will pay the state $950,000, and ST Services, which operated the 52-mile pipeline for Pepco, will pay $1 million. The spill released 140,400 gallons of fuel oil into Swanson Creek.

To complete the healing begun by nature and industry after a disastrous oil spill on the Patuxent River two years ago, Washington's Potomac Electric Power Co. would have to build new havens for wildlife in the marshes of Southern Maryland - and in the farm fields of South Dakota. That is the proposal from four government agencies, who want the company to spend at least $2.7 million on environmental work intended to make up for the deaths of hundreds of ducks migrating to the Midwest and thousands of wading birds, fish, oysters and other creatures.

GOLDEN BEACH - Teams from state and federal agencies and Potomac Electric Power Co. combed the shorelines of Patuxent River tributaries last week, evaluating the cleanup of about 126,000 gallons of oil that gushed from a ruptured pipeline at the utility's Chalk Point plant one year ago. Then they delivered mixed reviews. Most of the black slime that had coated 17 miles of shoreline on both sides of the river is gone. But in some places, including parts of the beach in this St. Mary's County community, the telltale rainbow sheen spreads from tiny tar balls when the sand and water are stirred up, and black splotches mar the ground.