Sewer Line

It is a land tamed by black hands. Generations ago, the men of Loreley yanked stumps from the earth with pick and shovel, with rope and a horse -- breaking their backs to turn a mosquito-infested tract of clay into one of Baltimore County's little-known but enduring African-American communities."

Residents of the Cranberry section in Westminster applauded yesterday the county's long-delayed decision to extend public sewer service to their neighborhood.The $570,000 plan is designed to solve years of health and environmental problems caused by leaky, failed septic systems."The stream that flows behind my house has become so !B contaminated that nothing lives in it," Lester Stem, a lifelong Cranberry resident, told the County Commissioners during a public hearing on the plan yesterday afternoon.

The County Commissioners gave final approval yesterday to a long-delayed plan to extend public sewer service to 19 homes in the Cranberry section of Westminster.The $570,000 project is expected to solve years of health and environmental problems caused by leaky, failed septic systems in the Cranberry area.The county will install a low-pressure sewer system extension for homes along Old Manchester Road east of Lucabaugh Mill Road, just outside the northeast limits of Westminster. The extension will become part of the Westminster sewer system.

Not far from Interstate 95 in White Marsh, near a sea of townhouses, American Indians hunted and fished about 4,000 years ago along Honeygo Run, according to a Baltimore archaeologist.Joseph W. Hopkins' survey of the banks of the Honeygo has uncovered dozens of quartz pieces and a pottery shard that he says are evidence American Indians once inhabited the rolling hills and fields.The finds -- which could delay the start of a $2.7 million sewer project -- are due for more study under a $47,362 contract up for County Council approval tonight.

Breaking an impasse that threatened to delay construction in Baltimore County's next planned community, developers of adjacent properties in the Honeygo project have agreed to terms outlining sewer connections and other improvements, county officials said yesterday.The agreement, outlined in a Memorandum of Understanding, means developers of Perry Hall Farms and Glenside Farms can proceed with plans to build more than a quarter of the 4,800 homes planned for the Honeygo community.The developers had been in a stalemate prompted by Perry Hall Farms' need for a sewer connection, and by concerns that adequate public facilities laws that apply to Honeygo might have prevented Glenside Farms from breaking ground in the near future.

IT WASN'T the dog fur, or the dryer lint, or the scraps from laundering the rag rugs that clogged up the main drain leading from Karol's house to the sewer connection at the street."

The yawning sinkhole that swallowed a busy downtown Baltimore intersection snarled traffic for hours yesterday while the city's Public Works Department and utility company officials sidestepped assigning blame for the cave-in.As commuters faced the aftereffects of the early Saturday morning street collapse and subsequent gas explosion for the first time, rerouted traffic around the Franklin Street corridor caused backups all day. It is expected to inconvenience commuters for at least two weeks, when city officials say the crater will be repaired.

Long before America became known to the Western World, man was busily making pottery on a wooded hill overlooking what is now Dolfield Road in Owings Mills.That's the conclusion drawn by archaeologist Bob Hoffman, whose crew has found hundreds of artifacts along the two-mile route of a Baltimore County sewer line being installed parallel to Interstate 795."We rarely find base camps like this," Mr. Hoffman said yesterday, as he displayed some of the centuries-old artifacts. "We've been finding a lot of stuff."

An administrative mistake has forced Taneytown officials to postpone a public hearing that had been scheduled for tomorrow on the annexation of Leonard G. Wantz Jr.'s land on Trevanion Road.The hearing, originally set for 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at City Hall, has been rescheduled for Sept. 7 at the same time and place.Officials failed to notify the Office of State Planning and the Baltimore Metro Council about the hearing."State law requires that these two offices be notified of the hearing 45 days in advance because they have first right of comment," said Taneytown City Manager John L. Kendall.

More than 1,000 acres of prime land in the Owings Mills growth center will be open to development now that Baltimore County has received approval for the long-delayed Red Run Boulevard and sewer line.County Executive Roger B. Hayden announced yesterday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has selected the final road and sewer routes, ending a seven-year feud between the county and the federal agency.The extension of Red Run Boulevard and the sewer line will serve an area north of Owings Mills Mall between Red Run, an environmentally sensitive trout stream, and Interstate 795. The area is projected to serve as a job center to complement Owings Mills New Town, the area's residential hub.About 800 acres zoned for industry and commercial use have been waiting as long as 10 years for the conclusion of the road and sewer study, along with 400 acres zoned for housing.

To such well-known threats to the health of the Chesapeake Bay as nitrogen from farm fertilizers and runoff brought on by suburban sprawl, add a less-obvious danger: bacon grease. Homeowners who dump fat down the kitchen drain account for a growing share of sewage system overflows throughout Maryland. Most are minor, but grease buildup in a sewer line was blamed for a spill of more than a half-million gallons into woods next to the Patuxent River in Howard County this year. Yesterday, officials gathered on the banks of the Little Patuxent in Ellicott City's Centennial Park to call on cooks to be more careful.

Work crews from Baltimore City and Baltimore County labored last night in eastern Baltimore County to repair breaks in a 12-inch water main and a sewer line several feet under it. Heavy traffic was detoured from the site, at Hazelwood Avenue and Daybreak Terrace, as water gushed from the break. Kurt L. Kocher, a spokesman for the city's Department of Public Works, said the water main would be repaired first and that water could be restored by this morning. "We're hoping for that before the sewage line is repaired," he said.

An estimated 40,000 gallons of sewage overflowed from a broken line in Timonium before it was repaired late Sunday, according to county officials. The break in the 12-inch sewer line beneath East Padonia Road, between Quiet Stream Court and Sunnylake Place, was detected about 9 a.m. Sunday and was repaired by that night, according to Baltimore County officials. The county's Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management has posted signs advising residents to avoid contact with the waters of Merryman Branch, a tributary of Loch Raven Reservoir.

Eighteen years after Chris Mikesell bought a 1,000-square-foot cottage, he and his wife have finally saved enough money for some remodeling. But they may have to scrap those plans for a $50,000 to $60,000 upgrade they don't want. Another property owner in the 30-lot community of Carrs Manor, just across from the Annapolis city line, successfully petitioned Anne Arundel County for a sewer line extension that will cost an estimated $1.4 million -- a price that would be divided among all the property owners.

When Baltimore County decided to build a sewer line through their yard, James and Debbie Schneider knew there would be noise and dust. The peach trees would be knocked down and the grass torn up. But then, the Essex couple says, the crews bulldozed the kids' pool and the brick outdoor grill, built a 20-foot mountain of smelly sludge and parked a large crane next door. James Schneider warned the county not to get too close to the home's septic system. The crew accidentally destroyed it. The project was supposed to take a year.

Howard County is preparing to build a 10.5-mile, $66 million sewer line along the Little Patuxent River from Savage to Centennial Park. Design work for the line, which will parallel an existing gravity sewer line along the river, is under way, and county officials hope construction will begin next summer. The pipe's diameter will vary from 42 inches at the treatment plant, where the work will begin, to 27 inches at its northern terminus. The project is intended to provide sewer service in the eastern part of the county through the year 2035, including the redevelopment of central Columbia, said Wes Daub, project manager.

County officials issued a stop work order on a sewer line at the future site of an upscale Towson development after discovering earlier this week that work was being done without a required grading permit. The sewer runs from the construction site of The Quarters, a $170 million condominium and apartment complex at the intersection of Dulaney Valley Road and Fairmount Avenue. A nearby resident alerted county officials after observing that a number of trees had been cut down Tuesday. After determining that a grading permit had not yet been issued, the county told the subcontractors to stop cutting down trees, said Tom Vidmar, the deputy director of the county's Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management.

A contractor digging up an old sewer line in Northeast Baltimore yesterday caused a sewage overflow that the city's Department of Public Works estimated at 15 to 20 gallons a minute. Efforts to stop the spill near the 5200 block of Goodnow Road were continuing yesterday afternoon. Officials said rough terrain was hampering their work. The city said in a statement that a new sewer line is being installed. The old line will be bypassed and cemented shut. Signs are being posted, and residents are urged to avoid contact with Biddison Run, which runs through the Eastern Sanitation Yard.

About 22,000 gallons of untreated sewage was dumped into the Jones Falls at 3300 Clipper Mill Road on Wednesday and early yesterday morning after a sewer line broke. The overflow came as the city's Department of Public Works works on a $900 million upgrade of the sewer system. In 2002, Baltimore officials signed a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency to eliminate overflows. A city spokesman said the overflow occurred on a sewer line that is being replaced and was contained by 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

Sympathies go out to residents of Baltimore's central city communities who will spend the next year or so with their streets torn up to install a new sewer line. As The Sun's John Fritze reported Sunday, neighbors from Hampden to East Baltimore worry that the project will be noisy, disruptive, damaging to their property and so disturbing to subterranean life that rats will be scurrying through their yards. Some are skeptical of the project's value, and of city promises to finish it as swiftly as possible.