Wastewater Treatment

To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, the chairman of the Carroll County Planning Commission has voluntarily ended his business involvement with a group of Lineboro residents working to replace their failing septic systems.David T. Duree, a partner in a company that had been advising the Lineboro group on the development of an alternative wastewater-treatment system, said he didn't want questions about his role as a planning commissioner to affect the project."I decided the appearances were such that it would be prudent to withdraw from the Lineboro project," said Duree, president of Innova Ltd., a consulting business that helps develop alternative wastewater systems.

A plan to discharge treated sewage from Francis Scott Key High School onto a nearby dairy farm was unveiled before Carroll County commissioners yesterday by a New Windsor consultant.The commissioners immediately lauded the idea of David T. Duree, president of Advance Systems, as an inexpensive way to correct a costly error by the county Board of Education. The school board built the $800,000 wastewater treatment plant last year to replace its aging septic system, but failed to obtain state construction and discharge permits.

County Commissioner Robin Bartlett Frazier expressed concerns yesterday about a plan to discharge treated sewage from Francis Scott Key High School onto a neighboring dairy farm.Frazier said her objection is not to the scope of the project but to the proposed use of a consultant. She suggested that the county could save the taxpayers money by doing much of the work itself.J. Michael Evans, the county public works director, recommended that the commissioners hire David T. Duree, president of Advance Systems, to oversee the design and engineering of the project.

After months of brushing aside criticism of its school construction program, the county Board of Education launched an aggressive inquiry yesterday into building projects that have made the Carroll system the subject of a grand jury probe.A team of attorneys from Baltimore law firm Miles & Stockbridge will conduct a swift review of construction documents pertaining to newly opened Cranberry Station Elementary School and Francis Scott Key High School, where a wastewater treatment plant was built without proper state permits.

Howard County school board Vice President Stephen C. Bounds will ask his colleagues tomorrowto schedule another public meeting to air plans for a controversial wastewater treatment plant near Glenelg High School, he said yesterday.In addition, Councilman Allan H. Kittleman, a Republican who represents the western county, said he is confident the council will not vote on the proposal as part of the larger county water and sewer master plan at the next voting session, Nov. 1."It's not going forward," Kittleman said yesterday, in response to a large group of residents who appeared at the council's public hearing Monday night to complain that they got little or no notice of the project.

STAY-AT-HOME mom Gina Asher has returned to Glenelg from Tucson, Ariz., where she played in the 1999 National Championships for USA League Tennis last weekend."

The Board of County Commissioners ordered yesterday a study of "environmentally friendly alternatives" for disposing of the sewage at Francis Scott Key High School.Advanced Systems, a New Windsor company that specializes in wastewater treatment systems, will conduct the study with assistance from the University of Maryland Extension Service.The study is expected to cost $4,490 and take about two weeks, county Public Works Director J. Michael Evans told the commissioners yesterday.The examination will assess the feasibility and cost of treating the liquid residue in the school's sewage with a process that kills the bacteria, allowing treated water to be used for irrigation.

With a 400-seat addition scheduled to open at rural Glenelg High School in less than two years and a new middle school nearby to follow, Howard County school officials thought building a small wastewater treatment plant for both would be routine.It has proved to be anything but.The $2 million project proposed on a wooded acre behind nearby Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School in the western county has provoked a howl of outrage from nearby residents who, afraid of problems such as well contamination and lower property values, claim they weren't informed.

A report detailing an environmentally safe way to dispose of sewage at Francis Scott Key High School is due Friday to the Carroll County commissioners, who are concerned about the costs of waste disposal there.County public works Director J. Michael Evans told the commissioners yesterday that the $4,500 report will conclude whether a bacteria-killing, environmentally safe method of disposing sewage at the school is a feasible alternative.The commissioners are expected to consider the report and cost estimates of the plan next week.

In a move toward greater county government control of school construction projects, the Carroll commissioners said yesterday that they want to take over a high school's troubled wastewater treatment plant from the Board of Education.If the plan is approved by the school board, the county would inherit a project with a slew of problems.School officials built Francis Scott Key High School's $800,000 plant last year without the required state permits and may be required to pay thousands of dollars in state penalties and be forced to dismantle it at taxpayers' expense.

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.

Maryland was handed nearly $122 million Tuesday from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to fund drinking water projects and improve water quality as part of the federal government's latest round of stimulus spending. The stimulus effort, called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was advanced by President Barack Obama to jump-start the economy by improving the nation's infrastructure and creating and saving jobs. The money has begun steadily flowing to states through a variety of programs that are expected to improve roads and schools, as well as waterways and other programs.

A three-year, $100 million effort to cut levels of nutrients coming from Howard County's wastewater treatment plant in Savage got under way Thursday with a ceremonial groundbreaking. More than five years in the planning, the project will use waste from a nearby ice cream plant to help produce enough bacteria to sharply reduce the nitrogen being emitted with wastewater from 3,900 pounds a day now, to 830 pounds per day in 2012, when the work is completed. Reuse of some treated water will also help by diverting it from the Patuxent River.

Inmate who confessed to 1994 killing sentenced An inmate who sent a letter to city police confessing to killing a man 14 years ago was sentenced Tuesday to 13 years in prison, to be served at the same time as his prior robbery sentence of 29 years. Robert Preston Howard, 40, of the 3500 block of Oakmont Ave., pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of James Earl Singleton, 22. On Sept. 7, 1994, Singleton was found fatally shot in the 4800 block of Park Heights Ave. More than a decade later, while incarcerated in an Eastern Shore prison for five armed robberies, Howard wrote to Baltimore detectives, confessing to two murders.

The state Board of Public Works approved more than $1 million in grants yesterday for projects in Harford and Cecil counties that will improve water quality and supply in both jurisdictions, officials said. Harford will receive $490,000 to augment wastewater treatment in an area of Joppa where private septic systems are failing and causing public health and safety risks. Extending public lines into the Oaklyn Manor area at the southern end of the county will provide for better treatment and reduce nutrient pollution, officials said.

Five candidates, including two incumbents, are vying for three New Windsor Town Council seats up for grabs in the May 8 election. Incumbents Kevin Null and Steve Farkas are seeking re-election, but Councilwoman Charlotte Hollenbeck is stepping down. Town officials said candidates for the council seats were slow to file. The other three candidates include telecommunications technician F. Tracey Alban II, career firefighter Byron Welker and disc jockey and video production company owner Ed Smith.

The Maryland State Board of Public Works approved a $400,000 grant for Havre de Grace Wastewater Treatment Plant to upgrade and expand enhanced nutrient removal. "Awarding communities like Havre de Grace Enhanced Nutrient Removal [ENR] grants assure that the wastewater treatment plant will achieve critical nutrient reductions discharged into the Chesapeake Bay," said Kendl P. Philbrick, secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment. The ENR project will expand the treatment plant's capacity from 1.89 million to 2.3 million gallons per day. The grant will be used to plan, design and construct an ENR system to achieve a goal of 3 milligrams of total nitrogen per liter of treated water and to get the total phosphorus down to 0.3 milligrams per liter before discharging to the upper Chesapeake Bay. Excess nutrients lead to degraded water quality, which affects the ecology of the bay and its tributaries.

Not only was it a dark and stormy night -- it was muggy, too. But that didn't stop the recently formed Friends of Back Creek Park from going to work. Members of the nonprofit organization met for several hours Wednesday night during intermittent thunderstorms to plant native grasses in the small Back Creek Park in Annapolis. "We had nine hearty souls dancing around the lightning bolts," said Mel Wilkins, a group member. The grasses, planted along the shoreline that the group had recently rehabilitated, will serve several purposes: They will be food for ducks and a place for fish to lay eggs, and they will prevent erosion, Wilkins said.

CENTREVILLE -- A Queen Anne's County grand jury has concluded that an aging sewage treatment plant here was grossly mismanaged for years but found no evidence of criminal wrong- doing. In its report, the jury criticized the Maryland Department of the Environment for relying too heavily on self-reporting by town employees of sewage discharges. The panel outlined a half-dozen recommendations for increasing scrutiny on small municipal plants, including hiring more inspectors and stepping up random and unannounced inspections.

salisbury -- Three workers suffered minor injuries in a predawn chemical explosion at the Perdue Farms Inc. poultry processing plant yesterday. The blast caused the roof of the plant's wastewater treatment building to collapse, fire officials said. "Basically, we believe they off-loaded the wrong chemical into the wrong tank, and the mix created a violent explosion," said Steve Dickerson, a Salisbury Fire Department spokesman. Two of the injured were Perdue employees; the other was an independent truck driver, according to fire officials.