Raw Sewage

"I am a Democrat and I do recall the World Trade Center, the USS Cole and what happened on 9/11. But repeat after me, Iraq had nothing to do with it. Repeat that in your head until it sinks in and then you will know why we don't belong in Iraq. " "I think it's crazy that Clear Spring Elementary expects parents to pay $11 for a notebook for the children to write their assignments down in. This is ridiculous when a regular notebook would do just as good. This is why people get discouraged about sending their children to school.

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. - During heavy rains, the municipal sewer plant in Cumberland, Md., sometimes becomes overloaded, allowing raw sewage to run into the Potomac River. [cont. from news page ] As soon as the sewage spills into the river, Cumberland authorities contact officials at other towns along the Potomac - including Paw Paw, W.Va., Shepherdstown, W.Va., and Hagerstown - notifying them that the sewage has entered the river and is headed downstream, said Ron Turner, a sewer plant operator for the City of Cumberland.

Hagerstown waste water treatment plant shut down By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI kimy@herald-mail.com Hagerstown's waste water treatment plant was shut down Saturday after an unknown solvent entered the plant and killed off microbes crucial to the treatment process. A state environmental agency spokesman said millions of gallons of untreated sewage were emptying into the Potomac River following the shutdown. Health officials said there was no immediate public health threat.

Elsewhere on this page is a letter from a Hagerstown-area reader upset by the repeated discharges of partially treated sewage into the Antietam Creek. Last week Mayor William Breichner and three City Council members said that fixing that problem was the city's top priority and that money would not be an issue. That - and recent events elsewhere in the U.S. - got me to thinking about two questions: They include: In areas of Florida devastated by Hurricane Charley, there are no doubt some sewer plants that have been damaged.

photo: KEVIN G. GILBERT / staff photographer enlarge By LISA GRAYBEAL / Staff Writer Over the past five years, the city of Hagerstown has pumped an estimated 50 million gallons of waste water into Hamilton Run with permission from the state Department of the Environment, according to monthly reports filed to the state by the city's Water Pollution Control department. --cont from news -- Although much of the discharge is storm water runoff, the waste water pumped into the stream that flows into Antietam Creek contains a "component of sewage," from overflowing septic systems, said Rick Thomas, the city's Water Pollution Control manager.

Budget presented HANCOCK - Town officials presented a nearly $2 million operating budget Wednesday at a public hearing before the monthly town council meeting. The proposed $1.9 million budget includes a $114,777 surplus, or "contingency fund," money that went unspent in last year's $1.45 million budget. Town Manager David Smith, who prepared the budget, said the contingency fund likely would be spent on hiring an additional police officer or would go toward electricity bills, which are expected to increase by 46 percent.

shappell@herald-mail.com WASHINGTON COUNTY - The remains of Tropical Storm Frances soaked Washington County Wednesday, prompting area officials and national weather experts to issue a flood warning. According to weather observer Greg Keefer's Web site at www.i4weather.net, Hagerstown received 0.63 inch of rain by 9:15 p.m., Wednesday. The National Weather Service's Sterling, Va., office issued a flash flood warning for Washington County and for parts of West Virginia's Eastern Panhandle Wednesday at 8:46 p.m. The warning was to remain in effect through 12:45 a.m. today, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Web site at www.noaa.

Bill would force homeowners to clean properties By LAURA ERNDE / Staff Writer ANNAPOLIS - One woman had so many cats in her Hagerstown row house that it triggered her neighbor's allergies. A Carroll County, Md., woman had filled her home with so much trash that her roommate died in a fire when rescuers couldn't get to him in time. Two Hagerstown-area homeowners allowed raw sewage to run through their neighbors' yards. All the cases have one thing in common - the scofflaws refused to obey court orders to clean up their properties.

More sewage to foul Antietam Creek By DAN KULIN dank@herald-mail.com Millions of gallons of mostly untreated waste water from the Hagerstown sewer plant likely will continue to flow into Antietam Creek for several days, Plant Superintendent Donald Barton said Monday. continued But adjustments planned for the treatment system, including today's start of a new disinfection process, should improve the quality of the waste water going into Antietam Creek, Barton said.

WILLIAMSPORT tiffanya@herald-mail.com Failures within Williamsport's sewer system caused the town's main pump to shut down Tuesday and also caused an unknown amount of raw sewage to leak Feb. 8, Mayor James G. McCleaf II said. Town officials repaired the pump Tuesday morning, containing the sewage before it could leak, McCleaf said. The Maryland Department of the Environment is investigating the Feb. 8 sewage leak, MDE spokesman Richard McIntire said. McIntire said the town reported the leak to local MDE officials, who were still trying to determine how much sewage leaked.