Paper Mill

NewPage Corp.'s paper mill, one of Allegany County's largest employers, will lose 130 jobs as part of the Dayton, Ohio-based company's efforts to cut costs and match production with market demand. The job cuts are the result of the permanent shutdown of the plant's No. 7 paper machine, which the company said last week would end production by March 31. NewPage said it will offer early retirement to hourly employees who are 62 or older next year, while some might be moved to other positions.

Legislation that would have phased out millions in ratepayer-financed subsidies for mostly out-of-state paper mills died in a House committee Friday, just a day after the Senate passed a companion measure. The House version of the so-called "black liquor" bill, HB1102 , fell one vote short of the 12-vote majority needed to get out of the Economic Matters Committee. The vote in the panel was 11 to 8 for it. The Senate had voted 33-13 on Thursday to end the subsidies, after the bill had died and been resurrected in committee.

MeadWestvaco Corp.'s paper mill in Allegany County will lose about 150 jobs as part of the Stamford, Conn.-based company's continuing effort to eliminate 2,500 positions before the end of the year. The job reductions are the latest in a series of cuts that began in January after Dayton, Ohio-based Mead Corp. merged with Westvaco Corp. in a $3 billion deal that company officials said would result in $325 million in cost savings. The company plans to shut down eight machines that convert giant rolls of paper into sheets and move the majority of that work from its factory in Luke to Chillicothe, Ohio.

Tim Wheeler 's most recent article about the fight over black liquor in Maryland's renewable energy standard ("'Black liquor' bill resurrected," March 25) highlights the overwhelming need to reform our state energy policy. Over the last seven years, Maryland ratepayers have spent millions of dollars - money that was supposed to encourage new clean energy like wind and solar - on polluting energy from old out-of-state paper mills. The mills receive this subsidy by burning "black liquor," a carbon-rich byproduct of the paper pulping process and other mill residues.

For more than 75 years, cars, trucks and wagons have rattled over the steel grates of the Paper Mill Road Bridge, ferrying commuters home and to work across the Loch Raven Reservoir.But in 19 months, the elegantly arched bridge -- one of the few of its kind in the country -- will fall silent, except perhaps for the soft tread of footsteps or the squeak of bicycle tires.Contractors for Baltimore have started work on a $11.4 million bridge that will carry the nearly 10,000 cars that drive on Paper Mill Road each day. When the 669-foot-long span is completed in February 2000, it will be wider and stronger than the old one and will have a pedestrian sidewalk.

Some Annapolis lawmakers have gotten in the Easter spirit a little early.  A bill that would curtail millions in renewable-energy subsidies for mostly out-of-state paper mills comes to the Senate floor Monday, after being killed last week and then revived with a special deal for Maryland's only paper-making plant. The bill, SB684 , pushed by environmentalists, would phase out the ability of paper facilities to cash in on Maryland's renewable energy law by burning "black liquor," a tarry byproduct of the pulping process, and other wood waste to power their operations.

NEWTON FALLS, N.Y. - An aching stillness has settled over this company town. All that can be heard now are the whispers of the Adirondack winds spinning whirls of snow in empty streets. The sprawling Newton Falls paper mill has gone quiet, like some comatose Gulliver, and so has Lilliput. There are no more shift changes, which means no more cars rumbling down Route 60 to the mill, which means no more paper trimmers and millwrights seeking fortifying rounds of pizza and beer at the Newton Falls Hotel, the only other business in this remote hamlet.

The bridges crossing Loch Raven Reservoir at Paper Mill Road are a study in contrasts -- one sleek and functional, the other, no longer used, so ornate that it looks like something out of a Grimm's fairy tale. Baltimore County officials have been trying to decide what to do with the latter bridge for the past three years. Now plans are being developed to make it accessible to hikers and bicyclists. "Around here, some people say it's almost as beautiful as the Brooklyn Bridge. ... It's in a beautiful part of the county, and it will give people a good place to go out to on a nice day, if only for a couple hours," said David Fidler, spokesman for the county Department of Public Works.

LUKE - Bounded by lush forest and towering cliffs, the North Branch of the Potomac River offers some of Western Maryland's most breathtaking scenery as it winds through the Allegheny Mountains. Heron, osprey and even the occasional eagle prowl the skies looking for fish in the water. But the view is spoiled here for many anglers and outdoors enthusiasts by sour odors and industrial waste from Westvaco Corp.'s pulp and paper mill, which turns the river the color of chocolate milk for miles downstream.

LUKE - This Appalachian mill town is clinging to life. The school, the barbershop and the general store are long gone. A main street has been permanently closed. Fewer than 80 residents, most of them elderly, remain, a shadow of the more than 1,000 who once lived in this far-west Maryland town. The giant paper mill here buys and razes their houses as they die, turning the cramped hillside streets into an eerie checkerboard. "There were houses all through down here, and they're all gone," said Mayor Joseph W. LaRue, 75, as he led a tour that felt more like an archaeological survey.

Some Annapolis lawmakers have gotten in the Easter spirit a little early.  A bill that would curtail millions in renewable-energy subsidies for mostly out-of-state paper mills comes to the Senate floor Monday, after being killed last week and then revived with a special deal for Maryland's only paper-making plant. The bill, SB684 , pushed by environmentalists, would phase out the ability of paper facilities to cash in on Maryland's renewable energy law by burning "black liquor," a tarry byproduct of the pulping process, and other wood waste to power their operations.

A deal environmentalists thought had been worked out to stop mostly out-of-state paper mills from cashing in on Maryland's renewable energy law by burning so-called "black liquor" has come unglued. The state's only paper plant in Allegany County has backtracked on a pledge not to oppose the move in return for being allowed to keep collecting from the state's utility customers for another five years. The New Page mill in Luke and several others out of state have reaped millions of dollarsfrom Maryland ratepayers over the past eight years by taking advantage of an obscure provision in the "renewable portfolio standard" law, passed in 2004 to reduce the state's reliance on climate-warming fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Under the law, Maryland's electricity suppliers must increase the amount of power generated  from renewable sources to 20 percent by 2022.

A Western Maryland paper mill and several others in the region have collected millions of dollars over the past eight years by taking advantage of an obscure provision in a state law that is supposed to encourage the development of wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. The paper manufacturers routinely burn waste byproducts from their mills to make the energy to run them. But since 2005, they've been getting paid to do so by selling "renewable energy credits" to power companies, which can buy the paper waste credits rather than purchase ones generated by the sun or wind.

The O'Malley administration is proposing to pare back a bill aimed at reducing global-warming pollution after Maryland industries warned that the legislation could put them out of business. Instead of requiring a 90 percent cut in greenhouse gases statewide by 2050, an amended version of the bill would set this as a goal. "The Maryland Department of the Environment will institute the planning process to get to the 2050 goal ... but we want to clarify that the bill does not require a straight-out 90 percent reduction," Maryland Environment Secretary Shari Wilson told a hearing of two House of Delegates committees yesterday.

Dave Trembley grabs a cloth napkin from the table of an Inner Harbor restaurant and wipes away a tear streaming down his cheek. It's a busy lunch crowd, with waitresses buzzing about and patrons shouting small talk as the 55-year-old Trembley, unrecognized and undeterred, chokes back his emotions and tells his story. It would be much too simple to say that Trembley, a career minor league nomad, received his big break in June when he was named the Orioles interim manager. Or that his dream came true yesterday when club president Andy MacPhail announced that Trembley's contract had been extended through 2008, with a club option for 2009 - meaning he finally has a baseball home from one season to the next, this one in the majors.

Congested roads in growing Owings Mills and White Marsh are scheduled for widening in the next decade under a new long-range regional transportation plan, but relatively few other upgrades to roads maintained by the county have been proposed to handle projected increases in traffic in the next 30 years. Although the population of the county is expected to increase about 13 percent and the work force about 17 percent, the draft plan, "Transportation Outlook 2035," includes few county-managed road projects.

THE TRAIL of commuters from northern Baltimore County into Harford County's sprawl often winds along Paper Mill Road, a nearly six-mile stretch of two-lane that at times becomes so clogged with traffic it's also known as a "roller coaster ride from hell."If you've ever taken Paper Mill, you certainly will remember its sharp bends, rusty, rustic, narrow bridge and traffic jams that sometimes make the drive a white-knuckle experience."For 18 years, I've been traveling this route," explained Scott B., a commuter from Forest Hill.

A PERILOUS situation confronts many who love the great outdoors near the tiny village of Ashland just north of Cockeysville.There, the Northern Central Railroad Trail winds through scenic woods and beckons many a bicyclist and hiker to wander along the 20-some-mile path through northern Baltimore County.But danger lurks among the robins and evergreens. As the trail crosses Paper Mill Road, traffic whizzing by at -- and above -- the posted 40-mph speed limit threatens to slam into the nature lovers ambling through.

LUKE, Md. -- China is 7,000 miles away from this speck of a town in the mountains, half a world away. But as a looming economic threat, the country has never seemed so stiflingly close. The paper mill here that employs 950 is feeling the pressure of cheaper Chinese imports. On New Year's Eve, it shut down one of its three huge manufacturing machines and cut 130 jobs, touching off rumors across the tri-state region where employees live that it was only a matter of time before the plant closed.

MARYLAND Drowning raises questions The drowning of a Baltimore high school student on a West Virginia camping trip has many people, including his parents, looking for anwswers. pg 1a Behaving badly The Naval Academy has concluded that several midshipmen demonstrated poor behaviour on a Caribbean cruise that brought complaints from people who witnessed the incidents. pg 1b NATIONAL Pet food recall expands A massive national pet food recall involving wet, gravy-style products expanded yesterday to include its first dry food, as federal officials confirmed a contaminated wheat gluten shipment from China had gone to more than one manufacturer.