Wastewater

Howard County officials discovered and cleared yesterday a sewer pipe blockage that might have spilled 720,000 gallons of untreated wastewater over eight days onto wooded ground in an industrial area of Jessup. Jeff Mozal, operations manager for the county Bureau of Utilities, said plastic bags, grease and debris clogged a 12-inch pipe near Montevideo Road that takes waste to Baltimore's Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant, causing water to back up and pour from manholes along the line.

A Dorchester County sewer plant operator has been fined $5,000 and lost his license to operate a treatment plant for failing to perform required wastewater tests and falsifying state environmental records from the plant.Thomas W. Trego of Secretary pleaded guilty in Dorchester County District Court on Monday to filing a false statement about tests performed at the Twin Cities Wastewater Treatment plant in Secretary in June 1998. Judge John C. Coolahan suspended $4,000 of the fine, made the remainder payable to the Maryland Clean Water Fund and ordered Trego to perform 40 hours of community service.

FireWestminster: Firefighters responded to a fire alarm in the 400 block of Cassell Close at 10: 51 a.m. Thursday. Units were out 21 minutes.PoliceWestminster: A Westminster City employee reported Thursday that a piece of breathing apparatus was stolen from the wastewater treatment plant on Old New Windsor Road. The loss was estimated at $3,143.Pub Date: 2/02/98

An Arnold waterway has been reopened after a 17,500-gallon wastewater spill last week, the Anne Arundel County Department of Health said yesterday. Test results show Deep Creek's water is acceptable for direct contact and recreational use, according to state and federal standards. The ice storm on Valentine's Day knocked out power to much of Anne Arundel County, including the Bay Hills Pumping Station. It overflowed, sending the raw sewage into the creek.

Baltimore: Schools Delay closings vote, board is to be asked Baltimore school officials will ask city Board of Education members to delay for 30 days the planned vote on the closings of Thurgood Marshall and Hamilton middle schools at tonight's board meeting. School officials said yesterday at a meeting at the North Avenue headquarters that the proposed middle school closings will require more public hearings because of changes to their original proposal. Thurgood Marshall was originally scheduled to close in the summer of 2009, but the new proposal calls for the school to be shut down a year earlier.

The county commissioners voted yesterday to help Lineboro residents develop a plan to build a wastewater treatment facility, one that would replace the town's failed septic systems. After a meeting with a Lineboro citizens group, the commissioners agreed to allow county engineers to draw up a cost estimate for a study to explore possible solutions for the town's sewage problems. But the commissioners stopped short of committing any funds to the study, which could cost $20,000 or more.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has filed a civil complaint against a Brooklyn Park pharmaceutical firm charging it dumped wastewater at the Aberdeen Water Treatment Plant without state permission.Kanasco Ltd., which manufactures synthetic penicillin, allegedly dumped industrial wastewater at the Aberdeen Waste Water Treatment Plant without state approval on June 10, 19 and 26 of this year, said Mike Sullivan, a Department of the Environment spokesman.Mr. Sullivan said the state does not know whether the wastewater was hazardous, but Aberdeen city officials said they asked the company for a lab analysis certifying the wastewater contained no hazardous chemicals before accepting it at their plant.

A South Baltimore industrial waste processing firm has agreed to pay a $60,000 fine to settle a lawsuit in which state and city officials accused the company of water pollution violations, says a lawyer for the Maryland Department of the Environment.Denise Ferguson-Southard, deputy counsel for the state environmental agency, said that Clean Harbors of Baltimore Inc. had reached an "agreement in principle" with state and city officials. The lawsuit was scheduled for a hearing in Baltimore Circuit Court Friday.

The Carroll school system is expected to resume responsibility for trucking wastewater from Francis Scott Key High School, with the award of a $20,000 contract today to an independent hauler. Freedom Septic Service of Sykesville is the apparent low bidder for the wastewater hauling - with a bid of $20,000 a year - according to school facilities director Kathleen Sanner. For the past 18 months, the county has hauled wastewater from Francis Scott Key outside Union Bridge to Runnymede Elementary in Mayberry for cleaning and discharge.

Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced yesterday a shake-up of Baltimore's Department of Public Works leaders, one month after revelations of a widening overtime scandal.Schmoke accepted city Public Works Director George G. Balog's recommendation that three of the agency's top bureau chiefs switch jobs while a fourth be removed.Under the restructuring, Robert F. Guston, chief of the department's Bureau of General Services, will work with the Housing Department on demolitions. A Public Works Department spokesman said yesterday that health concerns prompted Guston's reassignment.