Toxic Chemicals

However far-fetched, this is the fear: A rail car at a chemical plant in southern Baltimore ruptures without warning, releasing its full contents -- 180,000 pounds of chlorine -- into the atmosphere in a scant 10 minutes. The resulting toxic plume spreads for 14 miles, putting 1.6 million people at risk of property damage, injuries or worse.That worst-case scenario -- considered improbable if not impossible by experts -- was one of several disclosed yesterday morning during an awkward set of open houses at six of the state's largest chemical plants, all located near Curtis Bay.During the three-hour session, chemical executives shared with the public their worst nightmares about their plants -- and, in the next breath, insisted that residents have nothing to worry about.

HOWARD COUNTY SUFFERED an environmental crime more than two decades ago when someone dumped 900 drums of hazardous waste into the old Carrs Mill Landfill near Woodbine. Unfortunately, those most directly responsible for the dumping can never be brought to justice. A landfill supervisor suspected of permitting the illegal dumping is dead, and three companies involved in the deed have changed ownership.New ownership, however, does not relieve successor companies of the liability the former companies have.

NEW YORK - In a move that could lead to a protracted legal battle between New York state and one of the nation's largest industrial companies, the state will join a federal effort to determine the costs of environmental damage to the Hudson River from toxic chemicals, Gov. George Pataki has announced.The inquiry will also determine if any polluters should be sued to recover those costs.While Pataki and other state officials named no particular polluters, the decision to investigate the damage clearly represented a blow to General Electric Co., which operated two factories on the upper Hudson that produced the river's most significant single taint - a concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a toxic chemical that is believed to cause cancer in humans.

Maryland's largest environmental group called yesterday for a 50 percent reduction in the use of toxic chemicals in the Chesapeake Bay region over the next decade and got an immediate pledge of cooperation from the Glendening administration.William C. Baker, president of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, said at an Annapolis news conference that the bay and portions of its tributaries are still "seriously impaired" by toxic pollution, despite an extensive cleanup effort that has focused on nutrients from sewage and farm runoff.

WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs came under fire yesterday in Congress for its handling of Persian Gulf war-related illnesses, with lawmakers charging it has too often ignored gulf war veterans who say they were exposed to toxic chemicals.At a hearing of a House subcommittee, chairman Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, castigated VA officials for not paying more attention to veterans' reports that military chemical-detection equipment often sounded alarms showing toxic agents in areas around U.S. troops.

Chemical warfare experts at Aberdeen Proving Ground have been swamped with calls from officials of U.S. cities seeking information about the nerve agent sarin, similar toxic chemicals and how to deal with them.As a result of the suspected nerve agent attack Monday in the Tokyo subway, said James M. Allingham, spokesman for the Army Chemical and Biological Defense Command at Aberdeen, officials from more than a dozen municipalities have asked how to respond to a similar event -- how to equip emergency personnel and what types and quantities of medical supplies to have.

A Chinese tug is standing by in Baltimore harbor to take the USS Coral Sea, a once-mighty aircraft carrier, to a shipbreaker's yard in India.The ship's exit, crowning the failure of a plan to dismantle the huge old warship in Baltimore, could come as early as next week.In its wake, the stripped and battered ship will leave behind a passel of lawsuits, a newfound respect for the difficulty in dealing with toxic chemicals on board old ships, and a determination by the Navy not to allow any more of its vessels to be sold overseas for scrap.

Industries and municipalities in the Chesapeake Bay region would be asked to reduce releases of toxic chemicals by up to 75 percent over the next six years under a multistate plan to be adopted Friday.But the Chesapeake Bay Foundation warned yesterday that state and federal governments would be "backpedaling" on their commitment to restore the bay if the plan is adopted, waiting "until fish start dying and people become sick" before acting.The Annapolis-based environmental group called on the political leaders of the bay region, including Gov. William Donald Schaefer, to "stand firm against the recommendations of state and federal bureaucrats . . . to weaken efforts to reduce toxic pollution of the bay."

Toxic pollution from factories continues to decline in Maryland and the rest of the country, but the amount of industrial waste requiring disposal is on the rise, the government reported yesterday.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Maryland industries reported releasing 13 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the state's air, land and water in 1992, about 3 percent less than the year before.The state ranked 41st in total toxic releases; Louisiana was No. 1.The most-released chemicals in Maryland included toluene, a suspected cause of cancer; and ammonia and hydrochloric acid, both of which can cause skin, eye and lung irritations if inhaled.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration announced new environmental regulations yesterday designed to scrub 90 percent of chemical plants' toxic emissions from the nation's air.The sweeping new regulations issued by the Environmental Protection Agency require chemical manufacturers to modernize and improve pollution-control efforts over the next three years. The rules also add 112 chemicals to the list of federally regulated hazardous materials.The EPA estimates that the regulations will reduce acid rain and improve the respiratory health of many Americans by removing 506,000 tons of toxic chemicals from the atmosphere.

The Maryland Department of the Environment says Chesapeake Bay striped bass more than 28 inches long are contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs - industrial chemicals that can damage children's nervous systems. Maryland fish advisories say children should not eat large rockfish that run in springtime, and no one should eat local rockfish more than twice a month. In fact, Maryland and Virginia have posted health warnings for 23 kinds of bay fish and shellfish. A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study found half the bay bottom is degraded by PCBs, mercury or pesticides.

Environmental Protection Agency officials said yesterday they will crack down on the owner of a Brooklyn Park plant where 50,000 gallons of hazardous chemicals are stored, after acids and toxic chemicals were found leaking from their tanks into the ground. The action against Consolidated Pharmaceuticals Inc., expected as early as next week, comes on the heels of a $100,000 fine levied by the the state for multiple hazardous-waste violations and a letter Monday from Anne Arundel County Executive John R. Leopold that said the site poses the risk of a "potentially catastrophic fire."

"THAT," SAID my guide, "is where I'd strike if I was a terrorist." We were bobbing in a police launch in the Inner Harbor, staring at the promenade outside the Pratt Street Pavilion. "I'd fill a small boat with explosives," he continued, "and crash it right there. It would take 48 hours for the tide just to flush out the bodies from under the boardwalk." It was on this grisly note that my terror tour of Baltimore began. In counterterrorist jargon, it was called a vulnerability assessment, and in the year following the Sept.

Toxic chemical releases increased slightly in Maryland from 2000 to 2001, largely because of increased demand for electricity from coal and oil-burning power generating plants in Anne Arundel County. That puts Maryland in contrast to the nation, where toxic chemical releases into the air, water and land declined by 15.5 percent during the same period, according to new data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency's Toxics Release Inventory also ranked Baltimore in the top 10 jurisdictions for releases of toxic chemicals from electric utility companies and petroleum storage facilities.

THIS IS MY last column of the year, the century, the millennium, time to review 25 years spent chronicling Chesapeake Bay. The federally financed study of the bay that began in 1978 remains the most seminal event of the past quarter-century. Scientists did not particularly like it. It was more money, some $28 million, than could be spent wisely in the five years allotted, they said. Also, it seemed more about politics than science, focusing less on basic research than reaching consensus on the bay's most pressing problems and their causes.

A new initiative to rid the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries of dangerous chemical contaminants is up against two big obstacles: lack of knowledge and a shortage of money. The "Toxics 2000 strategy," to be unveiled today and endorsed by the governments of Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia, pledges "a Chesapeake Bay free of toxics" by 2010. One major goal is to ensure that all bay fish and shellfish are safe to eat. Another is to protect all bay creatures, including humans, from the harmful effects of pesticides, heavy metals and other contaminants.

Two Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. power plants in Anne Arundel County released 11.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air in 1998, ranking them first in the state and 11th in the nation for toxins, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday. The EPA distributed its Toxics Release Inventory report for 1998, which monitors the volumes of 650 chemicals released into the environment by various industries in the U.S., including utilities. The Brandon Shores and Wagner Station plants released 16 of the 650 toxic chemicals.

However far-fetched, this is the fear: A rail car at a chemical plant in southern Baltimore ruptures without warning, releasing its full contents -- 180,000 pounds of chlorine -- into the atmosphere in a scant 10 minutes. The resulting toxic plume spreads for 14 miles, putting 1.6 million people at risk of property damage, injuries or worse.That worst-case scenario -- considered improbable if not impossible by experts -- was one of several disclosed yesterday morning during an awkward set of open houses at six of the state's largest chemical plants, all located near Curtis Bay.During the three-hour session, chemical executives shared with the public their worst nightmares about their plants -- and, in the next breath, insisted that residents have nothing to worry about.

NEW YORK - In a move that could lead to a protracted legal battle between New York state and one of the nation's largest industrial companies, the state will join a federal effort to determine the costs of environmental damage to the Hudson River from toxic chemicals, Gov. George Pataki has announced.The inquiry will also determine if any polluters should be sued to recover those costs.While Pataki and other state officials named no particular polluters, the decision to investigate the damage clearly represented a blow to General Electric Co., which operated two factories on the upper Hudson that produced the river's most significant single taint - a concentration of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a toxic chemical that is believed to cause cancer in humans.

HOWARD COUNTY SUFFERED an environmental crime more than two decades ago when someone dumped 900 drums of hazardous waste into the old Carrs Mill Landfill near Woodbine. Unfortunately, those most directly responsible for the dumping can never be brought to justice. A landfill supervisor suspected of permitting the illegal dumping is dead, and three companies involved in the deed have changed ownership.New ownership, however, does not relieve successor companies of the liability the former companies have.