Discharge

C. William Hetzer Inc. has paid a $7,500 administrative penalty to the Maryland Clean Water Fund for violating a state groundwater discharge permit. For up to nine months the company from its plant at 9401 Sharpsburg Pike, Hagerstown, neglected to test the runoff discharged into a dry stream, said Susan Woods, director of communications for the Maryland Department of the Environment. "It was an oversight on our part," company President C. William Hetzer Jr. said. An old permit the company had from the Maryland Department of the Environment did not require the testing, Hetzer said.

Borough of Waynesboro sewer customers are facing a 15 percent rate increase effective May 1. The increase of $11.11 per billing quarter for most customers is on top of an August 2010 hike of $9.66 per billing quarter for those users. Borough officials say the increased revenue is needed because of a planned plant expansion to meet changing Chesapeake Bay discharge requirements. Those plant upgrades are estimated to cost about $11.4 million in Waynesboro, according to Utilities Director Leiter Pryor.

The Hagerstown sewage treatment plant violated its state environmental permit in January by discharging about three times the allowable amount of fecal coliform bacteria into Antietam Creek, according to City Water Pollution Control Manager Rick Thomas. Thomas characterized the permit violation as minor and said the bacteria levels did not pose a health threat. Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman Quentin Banks said the discharge "violates their permit, so we're concerned.

wandaw@herald-mail.com Reported cases of the sexually transmitted diseases chlamydia and gonorrhea have more than doubled among Washington County youth in the last seven years, according to recent figures from the Washington County Health Department. In 1997, the Health Department reported 63 chlamydia cases in males and females ages 12 to 19. By 2003, there were 160 cases of male and female chlamydia cases, the report states. There were 33 cases of gonorrhea among the same demographic group in 1997, but by 2003 the number of cases increased to 51, according to the report.

Week of May 13, 1957 Waynesboro's first ice cream plant operator, Charles Edward Fry, 80, of Route 4, Waynesboro, Pa., died Friday at the Chambersburg Hospital. A native of Jefferson, Md., he moved to Hagerstown in his teens. While living here, he enlisted in the Spanish-American War, then opened the ice cream factory in Waynesboro after his discharge from the Army. Claims for unemployment compensation were down slightly last week from the previous week, the Maryland State Employment Service office here reported Saturday.

FANNETTSBURG, Pa. - For a while it appeared as if a 70-year-old dam holding back a 65-acre lake on the West Branch of the Conococheague Creek was in the way of a plan to discharge effluent from a new public sewer system and would have to be removed. The threat of losing their lake caused an uproar among waterfront property owners in this rural northwest Franklin County community. The threat to the dam stemmed from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Agency orders that the Metal Township Supervisors put in public sewers in Fannettsburg - the first ever for the town, most of which surrounds the lake.

HAGERSTOWN - City officials will meet with representatives from the Maryland Department of the Environment within the next few weeks to discuss ways to fund an $8 million improvement project at the Hagerstown Wastewater Treatment Plant, according to Michael Spiker, the director of city utilities. Enhanced nutrient removal technology has to be installed at the plant to comply with state mandates, he said. Several wastewater treatment plants across the state must install the technology to help prevent pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus from running into the Chesapeake Bay, said Robert D. Ballinger II, Maryland Department of the Environment spokesman.

A Williamsport company that has been penalized by the state and federal governments for alleged environmental violations said Thursday it is "surprised and concerned" with the findings. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Maryland Department of Environment levied $126,000 in fines against Garden State Tanning for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act at its leather tanning and finishing plant. The EPA and Maryland Department of the Environment have cited Garden State for the following alleged violations: - Intermittently, since 1995, violating waste-water discharge permits by releasing excessive levels of pollutants into the Conococheague Creek and the Potomac River.

MAY 2, 1920-MAY 14, 2011 Newton K. Deibert, 91, of Fairplay, Md., died Saturday, May 14, 2011, in Hagerstown. Born May 2, 1920, he was the son of the late Newton A. Deibert and Lottie E. (Kimmel) Deibert. His wife, Eleanor R. (Dreher) Deibert, preceded him in death. He was a graduate of Orwigsburg High School, class of 1937; Philadelphia School of Art, class of 1941; University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., (engineering); and Catholic University, Washington D.C. He retired from the federal government on June 1, 1998.

Vernard "Vern" Brintzenhofe joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942, fresh out of high school in Ohio. His military career took him all over the world and most notably to Iwo Jima with the 4th Division. Vern survived the World War II battle for Iwo Jima in February 1945, but was evacuated to a hospital on Pearl Harbor after being wounded on the third day of the invasion, said son-in-law Wade Moore. He was awarded a Purple Heart. After a three-month recovery, Vern rejoined the 4th Division in Maui, Hawaii.

A 12-year-old girl who was injured in a traffic accident that killed her father Tuesday on Interstate 70 near the Washington-Frederick county line has been discharged from Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., a hospital spokeswoman said Wednesday night. Macey N. Gammon was steering a disabled vehicle that her father and 11-year-old brother were pushing on I-70 east when they were struck from behind by a vehicle at about 6:45 p.m., according to Maryland State Police.

A Hagerstown man who was struck by a train Saturday morning in the area of Hopewell Road and Interstate 81 was discharged from the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, a spokesman for the center said Sunday evening. Jimmy E. Lewis, 30, suffered internal injuries in the accident, which happened shortly after 11:30 a.m., Deputy 1st Class Bryan Teets of the Washington County Sheriff's Office said previously. Teets said Lewis was lying across the tracks when he was struck.

A bill that would give Maryland farmers a 10-year break from new state and local environmental regulations related to water quality if they agree to take part in a state program to reduce nutrient and sediment discharges into the water was heard Tuesday before a House committee. The bill, introduced by state Sen. Thomas M. Middleton, D-Charles, has cleared the Senate and has the support of Gov. Martin O'Malley. Del. Andrew A. Serafini, chairman of the Washington County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly, also supports the bill.

An Inwood, W.Va., man accused of shooting a white pit bull mix dog outside his house earlier this month was arraigned Wednesday on one felony count of animal cruelty in Berkeley County Magistrate Court, according to court documents. Earl Dean Stegall, 45, of 175 Longwood Drive, also was arraigned by Magistrate Betty Jo Hersh on one count of discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, according to court documents. Berkeley County Sheriff's Deputy H.C. Lu said in a criminal complaint that video footage from cameras mounted at Stegall's home in Timberwood Ridge subdivision show the defendant was facing the dog prior to shooting the animal.

A Washington County Circuit Court judge on Tuesday denied a defense motion to suppress statements Eric Shaquille Baymon made to police following an April incident in which a shot was fired and Baymon sustained a concussion in a struggle for the gun. Baymon, 19, of 42 E. Washington St., Apt. 3, is charged with first- and second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and discharging a firearm in the April 11 incident on East Lee Street. Baymon is a defendant and an alleged victim in the shooting, in which another man, Giancarlos Badia, is charged.

A Hagerstown man was charged with a drug violation earlier this week following an incident that resulted in a second man being charged with firing a hunting rifle in an alley in Frederick, Md. Michael Keith Nikirk, 50, of Hagerstown, was charged with possession of PCP, or phenyclidiune, a powerful hallucinogenic drug, according to a news release from the Frederick Police Department. Another man police allege was involved in the incident, William Richard Notneagle, 42, of Frederick, was charged with one count each of discharging a firearm in the city, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct, the release said.

MAY 2, 1920-MAY 14, 2011 Newton K. Deibert, 91, of Fairplay, Md., died Saturday, May 14, 2011, in Hagerstown. Born May 2, 1920, he was the son of the late Newton A. Deibert and Lottie E. (Kimmel) Deibert. His wife, Eleanor R. (Dreher) Deibert, preceded him in death. He was a graduate of Orwigsburg High School, class of 1937; Philadelphia School of Art, class of 1941; University of Washington, Seattle, Wash., (engineering); and Catholic University, Washington D.C. He retired from the federal government on June 1, 1998.

Vernard "Vern" Brintzenhofe joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1942, fresh out of high school in Ohio. His military career took him all over the world and most notably to Iwo Jima with the 4th Division. Vern survived the World War II battle for Iwo Jima in February 1945, but was evacuated to a hospital on Pearl Harbor after being wounded on the third day of the invasion, said son-in-law Wade Moore. He was awarded a Purple Heart. After a three-month recovery, Vern rejoined the 4th Division in Maui, Hawaii.

Borough of Waynesboro sewer customers are facing a 15 percent rate increase effective May 1. The increase of $11.11 per billing quarter for most customers is on top of an August 2010 hike of $9.66 per billing quarter for those users. Borough officials say the increased revenue is needed because of a planned plant expansion to meet changing Chesapeake Bay discharge requirements. Those plant upgrades are estimated to cost about $11.4 million in Waynesboro, according to Utilities Director Leiter Pryor.

A woman who had been in critical condition at Washington County Hospital following a motorcycle accident last weekend on Interstate 81 was discharged from the hospital Monday, a hospital spokesman said. The crash that injured Deborah Nusbaum happened about 5 p.m. Saturday in the southbound lanes near exit 6A, which leads to U.S. 40, a Washington County 911 dispatcher said. Maryland State Police Trooper 1st Class J.R. Bowers said Nusbaum, 52, of Boonsboro, was coming off a ramp and struck a passenger car on southbound I-81.