I’ve got this guy in my neighborhood who spends all of his day going around the neighborhood and picking up trash. Most of my neighbors don’t realize he’s doing it. It really makes the area look nicer and we can enjoy the parks without being covered in trash. It’s really good for the animals and the environment in general. I haven’t seen a bird with its neck stuck in a soda ring, or a squirrel choking on a plastic bottle. In my neighborhood the park is one of the biggest attractions and is the center of the town, there are venders there that make a living off of selling goods there, and it serves to be a major part of our environment.
The problem is, the town won’t take the trash from the guy, so he picks it up and puts it in his back yard, contained within his fence. Things were fine as he was the only one that had to see the trash and he lived far enough outside of town that it doesn’t bother his neighbors. But through the years, the trash piled up higher and higher and his fence can’t really contain it anymore.
Because he’s reached what we will call his “trapping capacity,” he has stopped cleaning up new trash. The town is mad because the park is starting to look dirty again, and they don’t want to have to hire new Parks and Rec employees to clean up the area. In addition, if there is a bad storm, the trash gets spread out through the neighborhood. Everyone else in the neighborhood is starting to complain that they now have to deal with the trash that this guy had cleaned up at one time from our streets.
The town has now issued an eviction order to this guy unless he pays to have all of the trash in his backyard hauled off to a dump, the trash that had come from the town. None of the trash was his. While the eviction notice is more of a threat to get him to act, it wouldn’t actually solve the main problem if he wasn’t there, which is the trash will still be thrown all over the park by various visitors, many of them from out of our town. In the event of a storm, all of the trash will still get blown around, but we just won’t have this guy around anymore.
It is an absolutely crazy situation, but because this guy owns a very profitable store in town, he is an easy target. You may have heard of him, his name is Exelon, and his backyard full of other people’s trash is known as the Conowingo Dam. And as the Maryland Department of the Environment threatens to close down a renewable water source because the Dam can no longer stop other people’s sediment from flowing into the bay, the alternative to meet our power generation needs will probably be another Natural Gas plant, because they are cheap and easy to build.
But this is the logic of the O’Malley State Government, I say damn them.
Spot on, excellent article. We live down river .
At the hearing on Tuesday night, the Army Corps of Engineers made it quite clear that our main problem is nitrogen and phosphorus in our runoff water. Glass man just announced that he would use existing resources to deal with that problem.
We’ll be following the dagger closely to see what existing resources Baarry is using. This is a very expensive process. Seeing as this material is considered hazardous.
Our main problem is that we are Pennsylvania and New Yorks toilet, river goes through their, and all their shiet flows into our bay. Thanks for the flush, make sure to get a good whiff to admire the stink.
I thought the writer above was talking about a man who comes through Magnolia and Joppatowne every morning and picks up trash for no other reason than he wants to see the community clean. I wave and honk to him every time I see him because I do so appreciate his energy, generosity and love for the community. Both this man and the one near Conowingo are testimonials to the basic goodness of a lot of people.
Funny I was thinking of the same person, but I am fairly certain he has the P & R schedule down pat for trash pickup and dumps it in one of the trash cans. after he picks up Trimble I have seen him put it in the Trash can at Copenhaver when he gets the trash in the parks parking lot. That guy does deserve a big thank you though. I hope he reads this and knows he is appreciated!
And so the state wants to evict him? I’d go to court, if I were him.
Nobody is trying to evict the dam. The debate is over what each party responsible for fouling the Susquehanna and the Chesapeake has to do to make this right. Most of us who were at the hearing agreed that this is largely not the responsibility of the Exelon, as it did not put the pollutants in the water. The current proponents of annually dredging the river tend to want the dam to pay for it and have the costs transferred onto the ratepayers, for what reason I don’t know. The next round of studies will provide more information regarding to what extent those upstream are keeping up with their Clean Water Act mandates and what additional steps have to be taken regarding either/or dredging and runoff abatement.
The good news is that Maryland seems to be on track for fulfilling its similarly mandated obligations.
Open the catwalk back up for fishing. Please and thank you.
What about Holtwood, Safe Harbor, and the 4 other dams up the Lower Susquehanna in Pennsylvania? What do they do for dredging, etc.?
People (in Maryland) act like we have the only dam on the entire river.