NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | October 5, 2009
Baltimore County will buy industrial land in Sparrows Point from the state at a bargain price and lease the property to a local union for a training school. Recent reconfiguring of highways and access ramps along the Baltimore Beltway and Interstate 95 corridor left the State Highway Administration with nearly 12 acres of industrial land and no use for it. With the International Union of Operating Engineers, the county has found a tenant ready to take over the property and build on it. "We are getting property in an industrial area," said Councilman Kevin Kamenetz.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | September 24, 2009
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., will hear arguments today in a case that could determine whether a Virginia company can proceed with plans to build a liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point in eastern Baltimore County. The Maryland Department of the Environment denied AES Corp. a water-quality certification for the project, which would install 88 miles of pipeline through Maryland to Pennsylvania. AES's plan involves dredging the Baltimore harbor so that it can handle the large LNG tankers.
NEWS
June 23, 2009
Sun ignores improvements at Sparrows Point The Baltimore Sun editorial "Who's Minding the Point" (June 7) contained several inaccuracies about pollution controls and regulatory oversight at the Severstal Sparrows Point facility. Severstal Sparrows Point operates air and wastewater pollution controls that are the best technology available, extensively monitors the respective emissions and reports environmental discharges that have shown substantial improvement over the last decade. The records, which are readily available, show improvement that comes as the result of extensive efforts by the current owner, Severstal; previous owners since Bethlehem Steel; and the government officials responsible for environmental and public protection.
NEWS
June 7, 2009
Decades of steelmaking and related activities at Sparrows Point have left a frightful legacy of hazardous waste. It's gotten so bad that some groundwater samples have revealed benzene levels at concentrations 100,000 times greater than what is considered safe. That means a manufacturer who needs benzene - a useful but cancer-causing chemical - could as easily use Point groundwater as buy the stuff off the shelf. Yet last week, when officials from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper traveled to Sparrows Point to announce plans to sue state and federal agencies over their failure to address this toxic inheritance, there was little evidence of even the most basic pollution controls.
NEWS
By Timothy B. Wheeler | May 29, 2009
A pair of environmental groups is threatening to sue state and federal environmental agencies as well as the present and former owners of the Sparrows Point steel mill complex, accusing them of failing to clean up pollution of the industrial site and of the surrounding community, as they promised to do 12 years ago. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper contend that toxic waste from the steel-making complex is contaminating the...
NEWS
By Arin Gencer | May 9, 2009
A hundred years ago, Sparrows Point High was housed with an elementary school in a 12-classroom building, opened to educate the steel-mill community. Now that building, and the company town, is long gone. But the students, faculty and staff at today's Sparrows Point High in Baltimore County say the school's spirit and sense of history remain strong in its 100th year, even as it has adapted to changing times. The Edgemere school is to officially celebrate this milestone with a centennial festival Saturday; and a dinner was held Friday night.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | May 5, 2009
Sparrows Point residents have watched waterways rich in oysters, crabs and fish deteriorate into lifeless streams. They have daily cleared their cars, homes and swimming pools of kish, a shiny metallic grit emanating from steel plants. Many longtimers can tell by the color of the smoke what chemicals are spewing from the numerous smokestacks nearby. And many endure ailments that could be caused by pollution that has fouled the air, land and water in what state health officials say is Maryland's leading disease cluster.
NEWS
April 24, 2009
On April 14, 2009, BERNARD TURNER, originally of Sparrows Point, MD passed away in Oklahoma City, OK after a long illness. Survived by wife, Cheryl, three step-children, five grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Services will be held in Oklahoma City, OK on April 24, 2009.
NEWS
By Frederick N. Rasmussen | March 12, 2009
George H. Gernand, longtime Dulaney High School athletic director who led the Lions to a regional lacrosse championship in 1976, died Sunday of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 82. Mr. Gernand was born and raised in Union Bridge. After graduating in 1944 from the old Elmer A. Wolfe High School, he enlisted in the Navy. "He enlisted on his 17th birthday," said a daughter, Leslie Baldacci of Chicago. Mr. Gernand served in the Pacific as a gunner's mate aboard the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown during the last year of the war. After being discharged, he enrolled at Springfield College in Springfield, Mass.
NEWS
By Mary Gail Hare | February 20, 2009
Nearly a dozen government, business and community groups in three states have asked federal energy regulators to rescind approval of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Sparrows Point in eastern Baltimore County and an 88-mile pipeline to Pennsylvania. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will have until March 16 to reply. "The number of appeals is not at all unusual, given the interest in this issue," FERC spokeswoman Tamara Young-Allen said yesterday. "All requests will be addressed.