Tank

The Maryland Department of the Environment today was investigating a chemical overflow from a waste-water storage tank in Anne Arundel County containing traces of triethyl amine, a chemical used in the making of pharmaceuticals.The spill last night caused several residents of a Ferndale neighborhood to experience mild throat irritation and headaches, said a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department.None of those affected by the fumes that wafted through the Arundel Gardens development required medical treatment.

The Westminster Common Council has approved a contract to paint the Hook Road water tank -- for less than half the anticipated amount.The city's budget allowed $100,000 for the job, but it was awarded to P&S Co. of White Marsh for $43,900, one of seven bids received, said Thomas B. Beyard, director of planning and public works."

An unofficial landmark for Western Maryland College will get a face lift next spring -- and also might be sporting fancy new paint.Westminster plans to drain and renovate the mushroom-shaped water tank that's often used to find the campus, said Thomas B. Beyard, the city's director of planning and public works.Both the wet and the dry interior surfaces will be refinished, he said, and the light-blue-green exterior will be repainted with alternating red and white pizza slices on its top.Work probably won't begin until next spring, Beyard said, when water use is down.

Tong Po is out, Tank might be in.The Kentucky Derby status of two Maryland-bred colts changed dramatically over the weekend.Tong Po, who had been training forwardly at Aqueduct for Saturday's Wood Memorial, pulled up with a sore shin in his right foreleg after a routine gallop on Saturday and is definitely out of the Derby.In fact, he's already back at Pimlico and is not expected to race again until the Saratoga, N.Y., meet in August.Meanwhile, Tank, another Maryland-bred colt who was expected to bypass the Derby for the Preakness, now might go to Louisville after a 7 1/2 -length victory Saturday in the Garden State Stakes.

Maryland might still have a runner in the Kentucky Derby.Mrs. Allaire duPont of Chesapeake City has not ruled out sending her colt Tank to the Louisville race on May 4.The horse will stay at Laurel, where he is currently stabled, at least through next week and then go to Churchill Downs the week of the Derby, if Mrs. duPont gives the go-ahead. He is scheduled to work at Laurel next Wednesday."We will only go if we think we have a shot to do really well," said Ben Perkins Jr., the horse's trainer.

WASHINGTON -- In a blunt preview of the looming budget battle in Congress, an influential conservative think tank yesterday urged Congress to scuttle nine Cabinet departments, overhaul Medicare, cut $152 billion in taxes and shift vast federal responsibilities to the states and private sector.The fiscal manifesto released by the Heritage Foundation, which helped develop the "Contract with America" that dominated the first 100 days of Congress, is a bid to shape the deficit-cutting efforts that will assume center stage when the House and Senate return to work.

Eli Gold voted for former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. twice, but one Sunday afternoon the insurance executive is sitting in his Pikesville office, jerking open the pages of a newspaper and calling him wrong. "There was something in today's paper that really, really upset me," Gold begins, in a measured tone. He is not talking taxes or slots - Gold is fingering the quality that eludes many conservatives in a state where liberals dominate: a measure of faith. "Given the trend lines here ... there's not a place for someone with my views in political life in Maryland," Gold reads, quoting Ehrlich in one of his last interviews as governor.

In case of emergency, the Hewitt home in western Howard County is prepared. The 18,000-square-foot home has 32 fire detectors, wall-mounted fire hoses hooked into the plumbing, a phone in each of the 11 bedrooms, a circuit breaker box plus two flashlights on each of the four floors, 12 sets of emergency lights and a 100,000-watt, diesel-fueled generator. And by December, owner Lee Hewitt Jr. is hoping to install the biggest piece of his home protection system: a 20,000-gallon underground water tank in front of his Cooksville mansion for use in the event of fire.