Raw Sewage

Raw sewage has spilled into a southern Carroll County stream, prompting warnings against wading, fishing, even walking along the shoreline. Drinking water is not affected because the waterway is downstream from Piney Run and Liberty lakes. To be safe, however, health officials have asked residents to stay away from the stream, known as Piney Run. Officials estimated that about 1 million gallons of untreated sewage spilled into the stream near Slacks Road in Sykesville. "We are warning people not to have any contact with the stream water," said Edwin F. Singer, the county's assistant director of environmental health.

Heavy rain over the holiday weekend caused three storm water overflows in Howard County on Memorial Day, public works officials said. About 15,500 gallons of storm-water overflow contaminated with raw sewage entered the Patuxent River at the North Laurel sewage pump station on U.S. 1 on May 26, said Bob Beringer, chief of the Department of Public Works' Bureau of Utilities. The overflow was reported at 6:30 a.m. and ceased about 1:30 p.m., he said. The station continued to experience heavy flows for hours after the river level receded, however.

City workers struggled last night to contain a huge overflow that has sent at least 30 million gallons of raw sewage pouring into Herring Run in Northeast Baltimore, the result of a blockage in a 3-foot-wide pipe. Health warnings were posted yesterday along parts of a 6-mile stretch of the waterway, which flows into the Back River near Essex. "This may be the biggest one in my 10 years," Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, the city health commissioner, said of the spill -- enough to fill 45 public swimming pools.

The woes of too much snow were largely replaced yesterday by the problems of too much water as Marylanders continued the cleanup from the biggest snowstorm on record. At 6 p.m., Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. lifted the state of emergency that had been in effect for seven days -- but many people were still coping with the storm's aftermath. The basements of hundreds of homes were flooded -- some with raw sewage -- and stores were closed because of fallen roofs or cracked ceilings, while flooding closed highways and the cover of water concealed dangerous potholes.

When Baltimore County wrestled recently with the cleanup of raw sewage spills that polluted two waterways within a week, county officials called the overflows "isolated" incidents. But a state report on sewage systems and figures on spills supplied by the county contradict that. In all, there were 102 spills in the past five years, according to county figures. The 5.2 million gallons of sewage spilled in the two recent instances -- the first at Gunpowder Falls on April 28, the second at School House Cove and Bear Creek on May 5 -- nearly equaled the county's annual average of 6 million gallons for the past five years, according to the county.

Hunting bill veto unfairly implies danger to public While I am not surprised the governor vetoed the bill that would have allowed an extra week of deer-hunting season, with one Sunday of hunting, in seven counties, I object to his reasons ("Governor vetoes bill on hunting," May 16). According to the governor, "Sunday is the only day of the week during hunting season when outdoor recreation such as hiking, picnicking, bird-watching, photography, angling, horseback riding, and other non-hunting activities can occur ... in the state's natural areas without the fear of nearby hunting."

Rick Harvey was in his Forest Hill home in Harford County packing for vacation when the Baltimore County public works dispatcher called him about 2:15 p.m. April 28. An alarm had gone off at the Gunpowder sewage pumping station at the end of Dundawan Road in Perry Hall, the dispatcher said. "It was like a punch in the gut," Harvey said. "It knocks the wind out of you." When he arrived at the station about 3:30 p.m., Harvey, the county superintendent of utilities, found sewage burying the pumps and controls at the red brick station.

One of the state's largest environmental groups, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, lashed out at Baltimore County yesterday over the 6 million-gallon sewage spill into Gunpowder Falls that began Sunday. Not only should people be fearful of contact with coliform and e-coli bacteria, but such spills put five to six times more nitrogen into the water than does treated sewage, a group official said. Theresa Pierno, executive director of the Maryland chapter, called the spill "enormous" for a waterway the size of the Gunpowder Falls.

Operators of Hagerstown's disabled wastewater treatment plant are expected to begin using chlorine today to disinfect raw sewage that has been flowing into a Potomac River tributary since chemicals from an unknown source knocked out the plant Friday. The plant has been spilling 5.7 million gallons of raw sewage a day into Antietam Creek since one or more toxic chemicals killed the microbes that remove harmful germs in sewage. Officials could not say how long it would be before the plant is operating normally.