Sewer System

Baltimore County officials plan to impose a moratorium on sewer hook-ups to shut the door to new development in the environmentally sensitive Bowleys Quarters and Back River Neck peninsulas.County officials say the moratorium, to be introduced as a bill at tonight's County Council meeting, is needed to curb growth on the two peninsulas, where a sewer system is being built to replace failing septic systems.The moratorium would prohibit building on 1,100 lots along the two peninsulas.The sewer system was intended to serve only the 1,200 existing homes, but has the capacity to serve twice that number, said Michael H. Davis, a spokesman for County Executive C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger.

The Baltimore County Council imposed last night a four-month moratorium on sewer hookups on the Bowleys Quarters and Back River Neck peninsulas, an effort to shut the door to development of up to 1,300 lots in the environmentally sensitive areas.The moratorium, approved by a 6-0 vote, is intended to curb growth on the two peninsulas, where a sewer system is being built to replace failing septic systems.The measure suspends new sewer hookups, needed to build homes, while the county Planning Board comes up with growth management controls for the 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.

Johns Hopkins Hospital will gain a $133,480 credit on its city RTC sewer bill as part of a settlement over disputed charges.Baltimore bills customers based on their consumption of clean water. Most people discharge into the sewer as much water as they receive. The city, however, provides a partial exemption for sewer charges if the property owner can show how much of the water is used in processing or production and is not returned to the city sewer system.Hopkins installed water meters in 1994 and realized that it had been paying sewer charges for more than 35 years even though the hospital wasn't discharging as much water into the sewer system as it received.

Union Bridge is collecting only 66 percent of the revenue needed to run its water and sewer system, town officials learned last night.The mayor and town council received the news during a 48-minute work session to discuss the need to raise the town's water and sewer rates.If the town's 365 water customers share a $26,850 operating shortfall equally, they would have to pay an extra $73.56 per year each. Likewise, the town's 355 sewer customers would have to pay an extra $114.51 annually to cover a $40,650 operating shortfall.

More than six months after the city was ordered to improve its antiquated water and sewer system, Taneytown has received a $450,000 state grant to help pay for a $4 million waste-water treatment plant expansion.The 40-year-old system has been blamed for a series of incidents after heavy rains last year in which raw sewage backed up into the basements of homes and untreated waste water flowed through drainage ditches.In November, Taneytown officials signed an agreement with the Maryland Department of the Environment, promising to improvethe system by 1999.

Howard County residents may have to pay almost three times as much in taxes or fees for storm water management under proposals unveiled at a public hearing Tuesday night at Centennial High School in Ellicott City.A task force appointed by County Executive Charles I. Ecker last summer came up with three options to pay for upgrading and maintaining the county's aging storm sewer system -- and all call for more money.Howard County residents were asked to give feedback on the proposals.There will be three more public hearings on the proposals, including one at 7: 30 p.m. today at the Western Howard County Senior Center on Route 97 in Cooksville.

A pharmaceutical plant in Brooklyn Park that closed two years ago after a grand jury indicted its owner for environmental violations could resume production of penicillin this year.Consolidated Pharmaceuticals Group Inc., the new owner of the plant in the 6100 block of Robinwood Road, cleared another regulatory hurdle Monday when Anne Arundel County officials gave it permission to reconnect to the public sewers.The county severed the original connection in 1991 after workers spilled 1,000 gallons of methylene chloride and isopropyl alcohol into a janitor's sink leading to the sewer.

Permission formally sought for new hospital for Bel AirBEL AIR -- Upper Chesapeake Health System, which operates two hospitals in the county, formally has requested permission to build a $60 million, 120-bed hospital in Bel Air.Plans call for the hospital to open in 1999 on 26 acres at Route 24 and West MacPhail Road. The move is part of Upper Chesapeake's plans to improve operations while downsizing.The hospital would replace Fallston General, which would close. Harford Memorial in Havre de Grace would be reduced to 189 beds.

The chance to live in what was billed as the county's only gated golf course community for seniors drew eager buyers to bucolic Glenwood over the past five years. But a lawsuit filed by the county government claims that the developers and builders of the Villas at Cattail Creek misled homebuyers about many aspects of the project. The suit accuses developers Donald Reuwer Jr. and J. Thomas Scrivener, along with NVR Inc., owner of the builder, Ryan Homes, of deceiving buyers for years. The allegations laid out range from the gate at the entrance, which the county said still doesn't work, to an unbuilt golf course, to a water and sewer system that even the developers acknowledge never functioned properly.

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.

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.

Baltimore County has tentatively agreed to make more than $800 million in repairs and improvements to its aging sewer system and to pay a $750,000 fine for past sewage spills under a proposed settlement with state and federal environmental agencies and the Department of Justice. The consent decree, scheduled for discussion at Tuesday's County Council work session, would require county officials to not only fix and upgrade the system - a network of 3,000 miles of sewer lines and 111 pumping stations that handle about 40 billion gallons a year -but to look for potential problems before they occur.

Faced with the failure of more than a quarter of the septic systems in two northern Carroll communities, the county Health Department has recommended construction of a public sewer system. Edwin Singer, director of the county's environmental health division, called the 27 percent failure rate high - the average is about 3 percent. More than 70 percent of the homes in Union Mills and Silver Run were built on small lots with no space to build replacement systems. "Our recommendation is based on the public health implications and our survey," Singer said at a public meeting with about 60 residents Monday night.

Faced with the failure of more than a quarter of the septic systems in two northern Carroll communities, the county Health Department has recommended construction of a public sewer system. Edwin Singer, director of the county's environmental health division, called the 27 percent failure rate high - the average is about 3 percent. More than 70 percent of the homes in Union Mills and Silver Run were built on small lots with no space to build replacement systems. "Our recommendation is based on the public health implications and our survey," Singer said at a public meeting with about 60 residents Monday night.

City officials proposed yesterday increasing water and sewer rates next month for the sixth time in eight years, a boost that would ripple into surrounding counties. Baltimore Public Works Director George Winfield told City Council members yesterday that he is proposing a 9 percent increase in each to cover the escalating costs of protecting and improving a deteriorating infrastructure that serves not only the city but also Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties.

More than 2 million gallons of raw sewage spilled into the Patapsco River near Elkridge during last weekend's heavy rains, one of several large area spills prompted by the downpour on top of 28 inches of snow. Because the spill was caused by the deluge, there was no way to stop the overflow. "There's no obstacle to pump around," said Howard County bureau of utilities chief Robert M. Beringer. The effluent surged for 30 hours through a manhole on the Howard-Anne Arundel County line at Furnace Avenue and Race Road in Patapsco Valley State Park, near a commercial area of Elkridge, but it was far from the only spill - or the largest - the storms produced.

In Baltimore City $2.1 billion budget approved by board, forwarded to council The Board of Estimates approved yesterday a $2.1 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and sent it to the City Council for consideration. The budget would eliminate more than 100 filled jobs citywide, including 39 custodians in recreation and parks whose work would be contracted out at an expected savings of $700,000 a year. Officials said they hope to minimize layoffs by finding city jobs or other employment for affected workers.

Baltimore's water and sewer rates rise today for the fifth time in seven years, after city officials approved yesterday double-digit increases that also affect surrounding counties. Mayor Martin O'Malley blamed "unfair" and "unjust" federal policies demanding costly improvements to water and sewer systems without providing funds. Fees will increase about $57 a year for the average family of four in the city, to $518. There are about 1.8 million users of city water and 1.6 million users of the sewer system.