Sludge

At first, Jeff and Kathy Lawson complained about the dozens of noisy trucks that began rumbling down their quiet country road in northern Harford County one day last month. They and their neighbors grew more irked upon discovering that the trucks contained treated sewage sludge to spread on an 80-acre field in Susquehanna State Park, less than a quarter-mile from their homes on Quaker Bottom Road near Havre de Grace. The Lawsons and others complained about the odor and raised concerns about the potential impact on property values and the environment.

Thanks for help in sludge debate The debate over sludge has never been about farmers' right to farm their land as they see fit but a matter of how we protect our public parkland. I am glad to hear that there is more private land available than there is Class B sludge available. This does pose the question of why the sludge hauler would spread the material on their own leased land and keep the real farmers on a waiting list? Bottom line is that given the restrictions associated with Class B sewage sludge it should not be used on parkland.

THE U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was right to seek further studies before approving a controversial open-water dumping area near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.A campaign of distortion and misinformation has inflamed the situation and imperiled the future of the port of Baltimore.Here's the situation: To keep shipping channels in the bay open, some 4 million cubic yards of material is dredged annually. Where to put this material -- nearly all of which is uncontaminated sandy fill -- is a sticky question.

IT'S A SATURDAY afternoon and the air has the same breezy feel as an attic in July, and I am standing alongside a dusty ballfield in the middle of Nowheresville.Somewhere, hamburgers and hot dogs sizzle merrily on the grill and people tear lustily into buttery ears of sweet corn. Somewhere, other adults splash in crystal-clear pools and hoist frozen gin and tonics as laughter rings out.Somewhere, tanned and rested foursomes traverse lush fairways, and the THWOCK! of a Titleist off the tee mixes with the excited shouts of someone rainbowing a 6-iron onto the green from 160 yards or holing a 35-foot putt.

Tyson Foods Inc. has notified the Maryland Department of the Environment that it has stopped spreading sludge from a chicken processing plant on an Eastern Shore farm, but the agency is still investigating possible violations of state water pollution laws, an MDE spokesman said.In April, neighbors complained to the state that the company was spreading large amounts of the sludge -- made up of wastewater, ground-up chicken parts and manure -- on the 105-acre farm near Berlin.Three MDE inspections confirmed that "sludge was being over-applied," contaminating ground water and causing other problems, according to an April 30 letter from MDE officials to the company.

An article in yesterday's Maryland section incorrectly reported the total fine that the state is seeking from Tyson Foods Inc. in a lawsuit over alleged improper disposal of chicken waste. The amount is $5.37 million.The Sun regrets the error.SNOW HILL -- Charging the nation's largest poultry producer with improperly dumping nearly 26,000 tons of sludge, state environmental officials went to court yesterday in an attempt to force Tyson Foods Inc. to pay nearly $536,000 in water pollution fines.

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation has asked that state officials enforce environmental laws against Tyson Foods Inc. after the environmental group's recent discoveries that the nation's largest poultry producer has been dumping thousands of gallons of chicken waste daily on an Eastern Shore field.In a letter sent to Maryland Department of Environment officials Friday, the foundation urged MDE to take immediate action against the poultry giant for disposing of chicken remains on its 105-acre farm field near Berlin.

Another Eastern Shore poultry-processing plant is in trouble with the state for polluting local waters with harmful nutrients.The Allen Family Foods' plant in Cordova cannot meet its 1997 permit's strict standards for releasing nutrients that cancontaminate drinking water and fuel algae blooms, said Quentin W. Banks, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.Harmful nutrients are building up in local ground water, Banks said.The Delaware-based company is building a $3.2 million treatment plant and is seeking to avoid fines of $10,000 per day.Tyson Foods also faces fines for improperly dumping nutrient-laden sludge from its Berlin plant on farm fields.

Today, as part of our series "The Human Brain, So To Speak," we explore the phenomenon of: Brain Sludge.Brain sludge is a term coined by leading scientists to describe the vast collection of moronic things that your brain chooses to remember instead of useful information.For example: Take any group of 100 average Americans, and sing to them, "Come and listen to my story 'bout a man named Jed." At least 97 of them will immediately sing: "A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed." They will sing this even if they are attending a funeral.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has given the owners of the closed and leaking hazardous waste landfill on Marley Neck tentative approval to reseal its trash hills using shredded tires and sludge.But the department has yet to approve an unpopular plan that would allow use of sludge as fertilizer for the grass that will cover the Solley Road site.The move to reseal the landfill came after it was discovered that cancer-causing chemicals and other poisons are seeping out of the landfill and into ground water.

If you believe that the 1969 Apollo moon landing was staged in Hollywood; that Marilyn Monroe was killed by the Kennedy family and Lady Diana by the royal family ... If you believe that FDR allowed the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor to facilitate America's entry into World War II and the Bush administration brought down the Twin Towers with explosive charges and holograms in order to provoke a war for oil ... If you believe that President Obama was...

A chain of missteps and misunderstandings was set in motion two months ago when an Associated Press article seemed to suggest that nine East Baltimore families were duped into letting Johns Hopkins University researchers spread "sewage sludge" on their property and were "never told about any harmful ingredients." It turns out that the material was commercially available compost placed on lawns as part of a lead-abatement experiment. Still, Marvin L. "Doc" Cheatham Sr., president of the Baltimore branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, is not satisfied with the answers Hopkins has provided so far. From a historical perspective, such suspicion is understandable; scientific institutions have, to say the least, not always had the best interests of poor black people in mind.

A Senate committee led by California Sen. Barbara Boxer plans to look into government funding of studies that put fertilizer made from treated human and industrial waste on the lawns of East Baltimore rowhouses and a vacant lot near a school in East St. Louis, Ill. Additionally, the president of the Maryland NAACP said yesterday that he is asking federal and state officials to launch a criminal investigation. The sludge was used to see if it could be a cheap way to clean up lead-contaminated soil - and ultimately to see whether cleaner soil would protect children from lead poisoning.

A $7.7 million upgrade to the county's water treatment plant in downtown Havre de Grace should reduce operational costs, enhance the water supply and meet the latest environmental standards, officials said. Plans call for a nearly 3,000-square-foot, three-story addition adjacent to the St. John Street plant, which draws its water from the nearby Susquehanna River. The addition, which will take about 18 months to build, will house equipment that can dry the silt and other solids removed from the water during the treatment process.

Thanks for help in sludge debate The debate over sludge has never been about farmers' right to farm their land as they see fit but a matter of how we protect our public parkland. I am glad to hear that there is more private land available than there is Class B sludge available. This does pose the question of why the sludge hauler would spread the material on their own leased land and keep the real farmers on a waiting list? Bottom line is that given the restrictions associated with Class B sewage sludge it should not be used on parkland.

Buoyed by their recent success at ending the spreading of sludge in Susquehanna State Park in Havre de Grace, opponents vow to seek an end to the practice on parkland across Maryland. The permit request for acreage just inside the park gate was withdrawn Aug. 24 and will not be renewed, according to the applicant. "We are in this for the long haul," said Diane Rogers of Quaker Bottom Road, who lives a few hundred yards from the park entrance. "I want to see our parks stay public and not have fields shut down."

A Harford County legislator is calling for a review of the practice of allowing companies to spread treated sludge from wastewater treatment plants on state-owned parkland. Del. Barry Glassman said he plans to introduce a measure in next year's General Assembly session to establish a task force that would look at leases between the Department of Natural Resources and haulers. "We want to ... review the entire lease process," said Glassman, a Republican who represents District 35A. "The final recommendation could lead to a change in the policy or discontinue it."

At first, Jeff and Kathy Lawson complained about the dozens of noisy trucks that began rumbling down their quiet country road in northern Harford County one day last month. They and their neighbors grew more irked upon discovering that the trucks contained treated sewage sludge to spread on an 80-acre field in Susquehanna State Park, less than a quarter-mile from their homes on Quaker Bottom Road near Havre de Grace. The Lawsons and others complained about the odor and raised concerns about the potential impact on property values and the environment.

A Carroll County advisory panel approved last night a request from Lehigh Cement Co. to permanently store pelletized sewage sludge, known as biosolids, for burning at its Union Bridge plant. The Carroll County commissioners are expected to vote on Lehigh's request in the next two weeks, County Attorney Kimberly A. Millender said. After a public hearing, the German company could gain clearance to permanently store the biosolids by mid-September, Millender said. The Lehigh plant is the first cement factory in North America to burn pelletized sludge in addition to coal to fire its cement kiln, according to Lehigh officials.

Spreading sludge from Harford County's wastewater treatment plant on farmland in a state park has drawn the ire of nearby residents who do not want the common practice extended to public parkland. Synagro Technologies Inc., the county's contractor, began hauling the sanitized byproduct, known as Class B biosolid, from the Sod Run treatment plant to a 108-acre farm near Havre de Grace last month. The farm is part of Susquehanna State Park, a favorite spot for anglers, hikers and horseback riders.