Waste Incinerator

The former site of a waste incinerator in Northeast Baltimore could be developed into a big-box store or warehouses or a combination under a plan being proposed by construction magnate Willard Hackerman, who has a contract to purchase the vacant, 19-acre site on Pulaski Highway from the city for more than $1 million. Hackerman, president and chief executive of the Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., has asked the city to designate the 6709 Pulaski Highway parcel a planned unit development, which would allow him to proceed with one of three scenarios.

U.S. threatens retaliatory tariffsA top U.S. official warned yesterday that the United States was ready to impose hefty retaliatory tariffs on French and other European exports within days in a fight over oilseeds trade as tensions between the two sides mounted. "It's a matter of days," U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills told a small group of reporters in Pittsburgh.Ms. Hills also squarely blamed the European Community for the latest impasse in international talks aimed at achieving a new global trade agreement.

Melinda Hamilton, an insurance executive and Annapolis resident, has announced she is running for the 6th District County Council seat being vacated by Democrat Maureen Lamb.Ms. Lamb is prohibited from running for another term by the county's term limit law.Ms. Hamilton, a Democrat, worked for more than 10 years as an executive with the New York Life Insurance Co. and has been an independent insurance consultant since August.She serves on the board of directors of Chrysalis House, a residential drug and alcohol treatment facility for women, and is chairwoman of the new construction committee.

Two years ago, the Chester River Association discovered that a small Eastern Shore chemical plant was dumping phosphorus and other pollutants into a Kent County creek. Workers and volunteers from the watchdog group took numerous samples, had them analyzed and provided the evidence to state officials, who brought legal action against the plant's owners. But the association's participation in the lawsuit was short-lived. A Kent County Circuit Court judge ruled last year that the group lacked legal standing and threw them out. Under Maryland case law, the plaintiff generally needs to be a neighbor within "sight or sound" range to be considered an aggrieved party.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's capitulation before foes of the Pulaski incinerator shows how an approaching election changes politician's priorities and makes him see the writing on the wall.By trying to lift Baltimore's five-year incinerator moratorium, the mayor hoped to do a favor for Willard Hackerman, the powerful construction magnate and bankroller of elections. But when this attempt ran into trouble, Mr. Schmoke came to the quick realization that he will need all the votes he can get in his re-election bid next year.

The debate over how Anne Arundel County should dispose of its trash into the next century continued last night, and the focus, not surprisingly, continued to be on the controversial question of incineration.Last night's forum -- one of many sponsored by the county, environmental groups and community associations in recent weeks -- was sponsored by the county's League of Women Voters and drew about 20 people to the Annapolis Elks Lodge.What is being debated at the forums is the county's 10-year solid waste plan, which sets goals for increased recycling and a reduction in the amount of waste generated by county.

Carrying picket signs with skunks painted on them, environmental activists demonstrated in front of City Hallyesterday afternoon to protest alleged "dirty dealings" of the owners of a medical-waste incinerator in South Baltimore.Mary Rosso, president of the Glen Burnie-based Maryland Waste Coalition, and about 20 other members of environmental groups charged that Medical Waste Associates lied about its financial problems in the spring to win approval to widen its catchment area.Ms. Rosso claimed that at the time the company was spending money to woo the Santa Rosa Band of Mission Indians to permit a medical incinerator on tribal land in Southern California.

The city Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals has denied an occupancy permit for a Hawkins Point medical-wasteincinerator, dealing another setback to the $27 million project.The zoning board rejected the permit request in a decision released Wednesday because the owners of the recently built incinerator have not complied with a city law regulating waste that comes to the plant.Incinerator owners say they will appeal the board's decision to Baltimore Circuit Court.A 1989 ordinance limits the incinerator to burning trash from hospitals in the city and in Anne Arundel, Baltimore and Harford counties.

Congressman visits industrial sitesRepublican U.S. Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest got a glimpse of industrial life in northern Anne Arundel County and South Baltimore yesterday morning.Local activists led Mr. Gilchrest, an Eastern Shore resident whose district includes much of central and northern Anne Arundel County, on a tour of industrial sites and landfills along the city-county border.Mary Rosso, a Silver Sands resident, said she wanted to make the congressman aware of the dense concentration of smokestacks, dumps and eyesores within a three-mile radius.

The efforts of Anne Arundel Councilwoman Shirley Murphy and her supporters that resulted this spring in a countywide ban on incinerators were applauded yesterday in a public show of appreciation during a ceremony by environmental activists. The ban is "a statement by Anne Arundel County that the county does not consider incinerators a solution for waste disposal," said Andrew Fellows, Chesapeake program director with Clean Water Action, a national grass-roots organization. "It's probably the first incinerator ban in the state of Maryland, and possibly the first in the country," he said of the ban, enacted in late May. Appreciative A small but appreciative crowd gathered at the event at Fort Smallwood and Fort Armistead roads, the Baltimore/Anne Arundel line, in support of Murphy, who proposed the incinerator ban and pushed it through the council, and state Democratic Del. Mary M. Rosso, who supported her efforts.