Reclamation

1/8 TC A Churchville-based company has asked a Harford Circuit Court judge to lift an injunction that would allow the company to start some operations at its controversial rubble fill near Havre de Grace.The company, Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc., received a state permit for the rubble fill, but the injunction prevents the company from starting operations at the dump until several court cases are resolved.Attorneys representing the county and the County Council have objected to the company's request, saying it is too soon for the courts to lift the injunction.

Ten days before the NFL draft, the amazing transformation of the Ravens continues. Rolando McClain is just the latest new piece of the puzzle. And I wouldn't bet he's the last free agent the Ravens sign, not with the team still $4.1 million under the salary cap and several gaping holes in the lineup still to be filled. But by signing the volatile linebacker after the Oakland Raiders dumped him, the Ravens reaffirmed that they're willing to take chances on players other teams wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole.

The president of Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc. said his company has agreed to pay a total of $30,000 in an out-of-court settlementto five Webster-area residents who opposed his company's plans for arubble and asbestos dump.Richard D. Schafer said the agreement calls for the five residents to drop their countersuits against his Churchville-based company, ending a year-long legal battle in Harford Circuit Court.Schafer announced the settlement in a written statement issued Friday. Kieron F. Quinn, a Baltimore attorney representing four of the residents, has scheduled a press conference at the County Courthouse tomorrow.

 Coaching changes are not only good for college basketball programs, they are good for players. If the retirement of Gary Williams and the hiring of Mark Turgeon has helped reinvigorate the Terps when it comes to recruiting, it has also benefited junior forward James Padgett more than any other player. Maybe Padgett would have emerged after two disappointing years if Williams was still in College Park, but listening to Padgett talk earlier this season and watching him perform for the past month leads to me to believe that Turgeon has much to do with the leap Maryland's hardest-working player has taken from a bust to an offensive-rebounding beast.

Ford Motor Co. made quite a splash in April when it announced that it was entering the $11 billion used-parts industry by purchasing a Florida business that dismantles cars and resells the parts. But a Baltimore company has been quietly plugging along with a similar venture for the past three years.Comprehensive Automotive Reclamation Service of MD Inc. -- CARS -- started up in March 1996 in an enterprise zone in East Baltimore with about 10 employees. Today it has 87 workers, all of whom receive health and dental benefits, and there are plans to open a second plant in Hartford, Conn.

A Bel Air engineering company is asking in Harford Circuit Court that Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc. of Churchville pay nearly $17,000 in unpaid bills for work at MRA's proposed asbestos and rubble fill near Webster.The engineering firm, Morris & Ritchie AssociatesInc., filed suit July 2 seeking payment of $16,852 for engineering and surveying work the firm says it did at the site for MRA's proposeddump.In addition to Maryland Reclamation, Morris & Ritchie names LarryStancill of Joppa in the judgment.

Residents opposed to a proposed asbestos and rubble fill near Havre de Grace told state officials last week that the dump might disrupt their water supplies.The residents also expressed concern that debris buried at Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc.'s proposed rubblefill on Gravel Hill Road will contaminate their water supplies."We're convinced that there is going to be de-watering at the site," said Wayne A. Fox, a geologist who lives near the rubble fill site. "That's one of our big concerns."

A Webster-area couple targeted by a Churchville company's defamation suit has won a default order against the company, claiming it failed to respond to their $3.4 million counter-suit in a timely manner.In response, Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc., whose proposal to run a rubble and asbestos dump are tied up in court, has asked Harford Circuit Judge Cypert O. Whitfill to vacate the order he issued against the company.George H. and Winifred Jonas of Paradise Road won the default order on Aug. 2 after submitting papers to the judge, saying Maryland Reclamation had not responded to their May 11 counter-suit.

Some citizens are upset by the fact that County Councilman John D. Schafer, D-District C, voted against a motion to appeal a judge's decision that will allow Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc. to seek a state permit for a proposed rubble fill.Schafer's son, Richard Schafer of Churchville, is president of Maryland Reclamation. Schafer abstained from two previous council votes -- one in November and one in May -- on matters related to Maryland Reclamation's proposal for a rubble fill.Lester H. Feinberg, the council's attorney, said, "I gave Schafer an opinion in November that he could vote without violating the ethics law because the language of the law dealt with dependent children."

Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc. has sued Harford County and theCounty Council over the "Machiavellian tactics" used to prevent the company from developing an asbestos and rubble dump near Havre de Grace.The company filed suit Thursday in Harford Circuit Court challenging a new county law that the firm says was adopted to disrupt itsefforts to get a state permit for the dump, proposed for a 68-acre site on Gravel Hill Road.H. Edward Andrews III, the County Council's attorney, called Maryland Reclamation's allegations in the suit "offensive and scandalous."

PHILADELPHIA -- In giant car-shredding machines such as the one near Philadelphia's Platt Memorial Bridge, America's old clunkers are efficiently reduced to chunks of valuable steel. Magnets pull the steel one way, so it can be melted and made into new cars or other products, and everything else goes the other way. Yet lately, to the dismay of those in the recycling industry, the nation's piles of "everything else" have been getting bigger. It's a case where the solution to one environmental problem has led to another.

Heavy rain late New Year's Day preceded a 330,000-gallon sewage overflow at Howard County's Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant in Savage, officials reported yesterday. The spill in the Little Patuxent River next to the plant had no lasting effect on water quality, mainly because of the heavy water flow in the river, said Daniel Ward, a plant engineer. Ward said the specific cause of the spill has not been determined, but the county is investigating. The plant has been undergoing a $56 million enlargement to increase capacity from 18 million to 25 million gallons a day by December next year.

By the time the calendar, if not the weather, turned the corner into fall, I was ready to throw in the trowel. The worst drought in 100 years, wind and extreme heat -- it was like the Gobi Desert on steroids. I hated it. I had started out with enthusiasm, expecting that reclamation -- of the garden, the house, and my life, a kind of prep for our soon-to-be-empty nest -- was possible. In March, filled with optimism, I went a little crazy in the local nurseries. But by July, the unrelenting drought had fried my attitude along with the landscape.

When Patti Prugh and her husband, Michael Furman, moved into their Victorian home in Lutherville, they estimated that to fix up what was "a total wreck" would take about five years. Ten years later, they've just about finished the job. Originally a two-room summer home, the house was in dreadful disrepair, although the yard was an oasis of flora. "In the spring, the yard is really beautiful," said Prugh. "Apparently a horticulturist lived here and the whole place is riddled with bulbs, including English hyacinths, daffodils, iris, and pink spider lilies, as well as other perennials, such as fox glove and daisies.

KEMPTON -- Less than two years ago, the swamp near this abandoned coal-mining town at the southern tip of Garrett County was a bright orange, discolored by acid discharges from the coal mine that gave the town its name. Nearby Laurel Run, a tributary of the North Branch of the Potomac River, was dead. No fish, no plants, no bacterial life could survive the acid flowing from the mines.After a $290,000 reclamation project and continuing treatment programs, the swamp is covered with grass and trees, and fish have started to poke back into the mouth of Laurel Run. It is an example of how far Maryland's efforts to reclaim abandoned mines has come -- and a sign of how far it has to go.Kempton Mine, which covers more than 2 1/2 times the area of Deep Creek Lake under the Maryland and West Virginia mountains, is the worst contributor to ground-water pollution of the abandoned mines that honeycomb these hills.

BALTIMORE County Council Chairman Kevin B. Kamenetz wants to stop treating developers of closed quarries differently than other developers, and he may have a point. Quarry plans are good for 30 years -- compared to five for other development plans -- and the council can't change their zoning, as it can on all other land.Mr. Kamenetz's proposed legislation to repeal quarries' special status under the law deserves serious attention, because it raises a legitimate question: Why should plans for the future use of quarries extend beyond even the county's master plan, which is revised every 10 years?

The county has asked that a lawsuit challenging zoning regulations for rubble dumps be dismissed.County officials and the County Council contend that the company that filed the suit did not follow proper channels to court.Responding Wednesday to a suit filed by Maryland Reclamation Associates Inc., the county asserts that the company should have appealedto the county zoning hearing examiner before taking the case to the civil courts.Maryland Reclamation, the Churchville-based company,filed suit June 20, challenging two county laws.

Webster residents opposed to a proposed dump for asbestos and rubbleare asking the state to suspend its permit review of the project.They contend the developer has not provided the state accurate information on the aquifer which provides area residents with water.The Concerned Citizens of Eastern Harford County wrote a letter to Robert Perciasepe, the new secretary of the state Department of theEnvironment, on Feb. 25 outlining their concerns."The proposed rubble landfill is clearly in noncompliance with specific regulations and with the intent of the regulations to protect the environment of the citizens of this state," Wayne A. Fox, spokesman for the citizensgroup, said in the letter.

Ford Motor Co. made quite a splash in April when it announced that it was entering the $11 billion used-parts industry by purchasing a Florida business that dismantles cars and resells the parts. But a Baltimore company has been quietly plugging along with a similar venture for the past three years.Comprehensive Automotive Reclamation Service of MD Inc. -- CARS -- started up in March 1996 in an enterprise zone in East Baltimore with about 10 employees. Today it has 87 workers, all of whom receive health and dental benefits, and there are plans to open a second plant in Hartford, Conn.

Shaping some of the largest properties left for residential use in Baltimore County, planners approved yesterday the transformation of a 125-acre Owings Mills quarry into a community of homes and businesses and endorsed stores proposed for the 150-acre Avalon development in Pikesville. The Arundel Corp., which owns Delight Quarry, wants to build 256 apartments for the elderly, 120 townhouses or condominiums, and 100 houses near Nicodemus Road and Franklin Boulevard. The community would include an 80,000-square-foot village center, 237,000 square feet of office space and a lake for recreation.