Pollution Control

Environmental Elements Corp. said yesterday that it will begin trading on the American Stock Exchange instead of the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 1, and that it expects to post a loss for the second quarter of its fiscal year.The Baltimore-based pollution control company is making the market switch because it does not expect to meet a new NYSE criterion that requires member companies to have market capitalization and shareholder equity of at least $50 million within one year."It's the equity component, not the market cap component, that causes the problem," said E. H. Verdery, chairman and chief executive officer.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening will launch a counter-offensive against Pfiesteria in Maryland waters today with the signing of landmark legislation aimed at reducing pollution coming from the land.The signing caps a nearly yearlong effort to adopt a strategy for battling the microbe, whose toxic outbreaks proved fatal to fish and harmful to humans on the Eastern Shore last summer.In order to win passage of the bill, Glendening had to agree to some critical compromises that were hard for environmentalists to accept.

Environmental Elements Corp., an engineering and project-management boutique focusing on the pollution-control business, reported second-quarter earnings yesterday that underscored the continuing turnaround of a company with a 50-year history in Baltimore.EEC said it earned $346,000, or 5 cents a share, for its fiscal second quarter, which ended Sept. 30, compared with profit of PTC $28,000, or break-even per share, for the same three months last year.Revenue jumped 81 percent for the quarter to $20.8 million this year compared with $11.5 million last year.

VOLUNTARY MEANS mandatory in the proposal for state farmers to limit animal manure pollution of Maryland waters. If farmers don't adopt and implement an acceptable manure management plan, the state must impose such requirements, regardless of political backlash.While the governor's commission debates the ways to regulate farm runoff of manure and chemical fertilizers, there is general agreement that livestock farms are a major contributor to Chesapeake Bay pollution. Scientific evidence suggests the microorganism Pfiesteria piscicida thrives on excessive farm runoff in the waters, even if its toxic secretion is directly stimulated by the presence of fish.

As voyages go for the Peter W. Anderson, the Environmental Protection Agency's flagship ocean research vessel, the past few weeks on Chesapeake Bay might have seemed unremarkable.Most days, the converted Vietnam gunboat, docked this week for tours at the Inner Harbor, has scarcely traveled past Poole's Island off Harford County.There, it held position in the "plume" of pollution streaming from Baltimore on the wind, its array of instruments taking the most discerning and comprehensive measures to date of the region's air emissions as they passed over and fell on the bay.But this minor voyage is part of the culmination of critical, decades-long efforts to link the health of the planet's air with that of its waters.

Hoping it is the beginning of a turnaround, Environmental Elements Corp. announced yesterday that it had received six contracts worth $20 million for air pollution control systems."

Faced with losses from its air pollution control business, Environmental Elements Corp. announced yesterday that it will not declare an annual dividend as it did last year. Last week, the company laid off about 30 employees -- about 10 percent of its work force -- to cut costs.The Baltimore company has lost $6.2 million, or 33 cents a share, in the first nine months of its fiscal year. It expects another loss in the fourth quarter, which ended March 31. The fourth-quarter results will be released next month.

Universal Security Instruments Inc.Earnings for this Owings Mills manufacturer of security, video and telecommunications equipment surged in the third fiscal quarter as the company continued to pursue expanding its engineering of new products designed in the United States but produced in China.Earnings for the first nine months in 1990 were unusually high because of the $1.3 million insurance payment the company received after a fire at its facility in March 1990.Three months ending 12/31/91.

Pamela Basu may have helped us all breathe more easily.Her graduate research into air pollution control had received international attention.The promise of a blossoming professional career had barely begun when the 34-year-old chemist died violently Tuesday near her Savage home as she was dragged along by her car at the hands of abductors.Wherever she worked or studied, she tempered the seriousness of her work with her smile and easy laugh, say those who worked with her.Those responsible for bearing news of the tragedy to fellow workers and former colleagues said they were surprised at the number of people whose lives she touched.

Henry David Thoreau may never have been known for his business acumen, but his admonition to "simplify, simplify" is a -- strategy that Baltimore-based Environmental Elements Inc. intends to follow.Since 1983, the company has trimmed its diverse environmental services business to a single area: supplying air pollution control devices to utilities and industries.The strategy has paid off. The company expects its revenues to increase from $56 million last year to $100 million this year.In July, the company had its first public stock offering, a move that it hopes will put it in position to win lucrative contracts from utility companies.

Responding to complaints from farmers, the O'Malley administration has scaled back its proposal to allow the state's environmental agency to start policing pollution from the Eastern Shore's huge poultry industry. Revised rules released last night would require 75 to 100 of Maryland's largest poultry farms - instead of twice that number - to obtain industrial-style water pollution control permits. The permits would require a list of manure runoff control measures, and annual reporting to the Maryland Department of the Environment on how much waste the farms are producing and where it's going.

Clean air costs While Maryland legislators debate a bill aimed at significant reductions in state carbon emissions over the next decade, there is another more obvious step they could quickly take to improve enforcement of existing air pollution laws - hire more inspectors. The Maryland Department of the Environment has only 18 inspectors to assess 11,600 sources of pollution, 26 short of the number needed. Legislation proposed by Sen. Brian E. Frosh of Montgomery County would increase air pollution fees, raising $2 million more a year that would be used to hire extra inspectors.

Power plants and other industries would have to pay more than $2 million a year in new air pollution fees so the state could hire more environmental enforcement officers under a bill being debated in Annapolis. The O'Malley administration is supporting the legislation, which would allow the Maryland Department of the Environment to use the money to fill 26 positions that have been vacant because of several years of budget cuts. "We need to have adequate enforcement of our air pollution laws, and we don't have that - only 18 inspectors looking after 11,600 sources of air pollution," said Sen. Brian E. Frosh, a Montgomery County Democrat and sponsor of the bill.

The O'Malley administration is proposing regulations that would for the first time allow the state's environmental agency to police pollution from the Eastern Shore's huge poultry industry. Under draft rules released yesterday, large chicken farms would have to get state permits and follow a list of pollution control requirements or face fines of up to $10,000 per day. The permits would be required for about 200 farms and would allow the Maryland Department of the Environment to inspect chicken houses and take water samples in streams nearby.

CORDOVA -- The barley fields on Bobby Hutchison's 4,000-acre farm are a healthy-looking deep green. Nearby, nubs of corn that were just planted are on their way to becoming golden stalks. The white frame house and barn are a pastoral scene that hark back to the 1930s, when Hutchison's father bought the Talbot County land and brought his family into the business. Under the surface, though, the view is less rosy. Farms remain one of the largest sources of pollution for the Chesapeake Bay, delivering huge amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment into the 125,000 miles of rivers that drain into the bay's six-state watershed.

Md. to join 16 states in pollution lawsuit Reversing a decision by the last governor, Gov. Martin O'Malley has decided to have Maryland join 16 other states in suing the Bush administration to try to force tougher federal regulations to control mercury air pollution. "We have a new governor and a new attorney general who concur that participation in this case is important to protect the state's interest to safeguard its water resources and the health of its citizens," said Shari T. Wilson, the state's environment secretary.

WASHINGTON - President Bush suffered the first major environmental policy setback of his second term yesterday when his "Clear Skies" initiative relaxing federal air pollution control restrictions on power plants was defeated in the Senate environment committee. The proposal was a top White House priority, but its failure to include carbon dioxide emissions - which many scientists consider a major cause of global warming - among pollution control targets was a big factor in its defeat.

WASHINGTON - The chairman of a Senate committee that oversees environmental issues has directed two national organizations that oppose President Bush's major clean-air initiative to turn over their financial and tax records to the Senate. Sen. James M. Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican who heads the Environment and Public Works Committee, asked for the documents 10 days after a representative of the two groups criticized the Clear Skies proposal before a Senate subcommittee. Inhofe is the leading sponsor of the administration bill, which is deadlocked in his panel.

The Clean Air Act has improved air quality significantly in the United States over the past three decades, but the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday that far more effort is needed to cut air pollution in the future. In a long-awaited report requested by Congress more than two years ago, the academy's panel of scientists say the landmark legislation has been crucial in reducing such pollutants as carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and lead - particularly in the face of a growing population and increasing energy consumption.

Environmental Elements Corp., a Baltimore air pollution control equipment maker hit by plunging sales, said yesterday that its top executive had departed and that 20 workers, or 13 percent of its work force, are being cut. John L. Sams resigned as the company's president, chief executive officer and board member effective immediately, the company announced in a statement. Chief Financial Officer Lawrence Rychlak was named interim president, the statement said. The statement said the company would take a charge of $140,000 in the current quarter for severance and other costs.