Sand Gravel

Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc., owner of a rubble landfill closed by the state more than three years ago, has been cited by the Maryland Department of the Environment for operating without a permit.The company, which was forced to cease operating its rubble landfill in August 1992 after repeated infractions, also was cited Sept. 19 for operating an open dump. Other accusations in the citation are accepting illegal waste, creating a potential environmental risk and operating a natural-wood waste recycling facility without a permit.

A recent article about Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc.'s landfill in Abingdon misstated the number of chemical drums illegally dumped on the property in 1980 that were labeled "trichloroethylene." Only one of the 75 drums was so labeled, according to a Harford County Health Department inspector's report.The Sun regrets the error.

Zoning hearings on Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc.'s request to resume surface mining next to its closed rubble landfill in Abingdon will be restarted tomorrow night in the Harford County Courthouse.Owners of the controversial mining and rubble fill business are contesting a 1994 decision by the county zoning administrator requiring them to obtain a special exemption to resume mining activity in what today is a largely residential area.Attorneys for the family-run sand and gravel business have argued that the Spencers are "intensifying" an operation that existed before Harford County even had a zoning code.

A recent article about Spencer Sand & Gravel Inc.'s landfill in Abingdon misstated the number of chemical drums illegally dumped on the property in 1980 that were labeled "trichloroethylene." Only one of the 75 drums was so labeled, according to a Harford County Health Department inspector's report.The Sun regrets the error.Pam Burns has lived in the shadow of the Spencer rubble fill for less than a year, and she is worried.When she and her neighbors on Pouska Road moved into their homes in the Village of Bynum Run in Abingdon last fall, they thought the problems at the now-closed landfill behind their homes were a thing of the past -- buried like so much rubble in the huge mound of earth behind their homes.

A Brooklyn Park sand and gravel company can start mining nine acres of its land between Hammonds Lane and Belle Grove Road, thanks to a county board of appeals decision yesterday.The board ruled that the parcel was erroneously zoned for single-family residential use, which does not permit sand and gravel operations. The panel held that the land should have been zoned residential-agricultural, which allows sand and gravel operations, and granted the exceptions that allow Belle Grove Corp. to begin mining the land.

A member of Carroll's environmental advisory board says he wasn't soliciting customers for his landscaping business -- just offering to provide professional advice -- when he approached representatives of a corporation that was seeking a variance from the county's forest conservation ordinance.Kevin E. Dayhoff, who owns a Finksburg landscaping business, gave his business card to an environmental consultant for Laurel Sand & Gravel Inc. after the Nov. 30 Environmental Affairs Advisory Board meeting and suggested that the consultant call him.County Attorney Charles W. Thompson said the county's ethics law doesn't address such business contacts, but he suggested that the county could provide better orientation programs for board members.

The county Environmental Affairs Advisory Board deadlocked yesterday over whether to give a sand and gravel company a variance from tree law requirements, then asked company officials to take another look at whether they really need such a variance.Laurel Sand & Gravel Inc. deferred its variance request last month to determine whether the county forest conservation ordinance applied to its plans. The Laurel company plans a transfer station in Finksburg to store stone to be brought in by rail, then loaded onto trucks for delivery.

The county Environmental Affairs Advisory Board deferred a sand and gravel corporation's request yesterday to be excused from planting trees under the county forest conservation ordinance.The board deferred action to give officials of Laurel Sand & Gravel Inc. time to find out whether the ordinance applies to the company's plans.The ordinance does not apply to projects that disturb less than 25,000 square feet, said James E. Slater Jr., the county environmental services administrator.Laurel Sand & Gravel plans to install a transfer station in Finksburg to store stone that will be brought in by rail from its Woodsboro quarry, then loaded onto trucks for delivery.

Members of the sand and gravel industry walked away disappointed Monday night after the County Council refused to substantially soften a bill regulating their business.Though council members complied with the industry's request to begin operations at 6 a.m., they approved more restrictive noise controls and refused to permit rock-crushingequipment in agricultural/residential zones."We got the earlier hours, but the industry is able to operate around the clock right now as long as we don't disturb the neighbors," said William Natter, president of Natter Services Inc., an Annapolis sand and gravel firm.