Sand And Gravel

Hearing on rubble landfill delayedAn appeals board deciding one of the longest cases in Anne Arundel history delayed a hearing on a massive rubble landfill last night, saying it may have to adhere to a new law regulating such operations.County Executive Robert R. Neall signed the bill into law on Feb. 26, three days after the Board of Appeals last met for deliberations on the case.The Silver Spring-based Halle Cos. wants to put the landfill on 150 acres in a 480-acre parcel off Patuxent Road, in the Forks of Patuxent area of Odenton.

A community meeting for Abingdon residents is scheduled Thursday in response to a controversial sand and gravel operation's efforts to resume mining on land it owns off Abingdon Road.At issue is an appeal by Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc. of an administrative decision by the county planning department that said the company must have approval from the Board of Zoning Appeals to mine the land on the east side of Abingdon Road.The site is next to a former rubble landfill operated by the company.

FOUR years ago as part of the Baltimore County's quadrennial rezoning cycle, the owners of a depleted White Marsh sand and gravel quarry sought to change the property's zoning from industrial to commercial. Had the County Council granted this request, General Motors wouldn't be building the $250 million Allison transmission plant there today.Instead of a plant employing 500 workers that will generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in local taxes, the county could have had one more big box store employing low-wage workers and yielding far less tax revenue.

A week after the state withdrew its plan to build a $114.2 million horse park at the former Naval Academy Dairy Farm, two other parties that had shown interest in leasing the Gambrills site said yesterday that they are also out of the running. After the Navy closed the two-month bidding period yesterday on the 857-acre property in western Anne Arundel, a spokesman declined to disclose the identities, or even the number, of bidders, but at least three entities - including Anne Arundel County - said they made confidential offers for the land.

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.

The Harford County Council approved the administration's solid waste management plan last night but not before eliminating plans to reopen a controversial landfill in the fast-growing Abingdon area. The plan was approved by a vote of 6-1 after the council adopted a series of amendments, including one that eliminated the former Spencer sand and gravel pit off Abingdon Road as a landfill for construction and demolition debris. Council President Robert S. Wagner ended any suspense on the landfill issue during a public hearing an hour before the council session.

Redland Genstar Inc., a Hunt Valley operator of stone quarries, has reduced its work force by 65 employees and closed its concrete plant in White Marsh, the company said yesterday.Jack Gease, director of real estate and public relations, said 45 workers were dismissed and another 20 took early retirement on Wednesday.Those employees who were dismissed received severance packages, he said."This is a very difficult thing to do," said Mr. Gease. "But, due to the continued downturn in the economy and intense competition that we have faced, we have had to take some extraordinary measures."

A top state environmental regulator is expected to testify on behalf of Harford County tomorrow when a zoning hearing continues on Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc.'s plans to resume surface mining next to its closed rubble landfill in Abingdon.The company is contesting a county zoning administrator's decision last fall to block a state permit that would have allowed the mining operation to expand.County Attorney Nancy Levy Giorno said she will call Edward Dexter, chief of the Solid Waste Compliance Division of the Maryland Department of the Environment, to testify about the history of the Abingdon company under state environmental regulation.

Harford County's proposed solid waste management plan calls for four rubble collection sites, including the reopening of a controversial landfill in the fast-growing Abingdon area. There is already growing opposition, among residents and County Council members, to a plan to use the Spencer sand and gravel pit off Abingdon Road as a landfill for construction and demolition debris. "That's not the place for a landfill," said Council President Robert S. Wagner. "The population has grown significantly in that area since the site was closed in the early 1990s."

The Potomac River, which flows between Maryland and Virginia, was named the nation's "most endangered" waterway today by a Washington-based environmental group. American Rivers put the Potomac atop its annual list of endangered rivers.  Though cleaner than it used to be, the "nation's river," so named because it flows through Washington, D.C., still faces threats from urban and agricultural pollution, the group says, and from cutbacks being pushed in Congress of federal environmental regulations.