Arundel Digest | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

FORT MEADE - The Defense Department is refusing to comply with orders or sign contracts to clean up Fort George G. Meade and 10 other hazardous waste sites, and has asked the White House and Justice Department to intervene on its behalf.

The dispute between the Pentagon and the Environmental Protection Agency has simmered over the last year since the EPA began issuing orders compelling the Air Force and Army to clean up four properties where contamination poses an "imminent and substantial" risk to public health and the environment.

In separate letters in May to the White House budget office and the Justice Department, Pentagon officials challenged the EPA's authority to issue orders under other environmental laws to force Superfund cleanups at Air Force bases in New Jersey and Florida and at the Army's Fort Meade. The Defense Department dismissed the EPA's claim that soil and groundwater pollution at the three bases was dangerous enough to warrant such action.

Senate Environment Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., agreed Monday with a request by Maryland's two Democratic senators, Barbara Mikulski and Benjamin Cardin, to hold a hearing on the Pentagon's noncompliance with the EPA's orders.

Fireworks show goes off tomorrow

GLEN BURNIE - The first Glen Burnie fireworks display in 12 years is set to go off tomorrow night at dusk

The Glen Burnie Improvement Association is sponsoring the Independence Day show at Sawmill Creek Park on Dorsey Road. The 20- to 25-minute display will begin between 8:45 and 9 p.m. As the 6,000 shells light up the sky, they should be visible from Sawmill Creek Park or the Third Avenue Park.

Parking will be available in the parking lot of Monsignor Slade Catholic School, 120 Dorsey Road. Overflow parking will be available in the Cromwell Station light rail parking lot. Handicapped parking only will be available at Sawmill Creek Park.

Participants should take a lawn chair or blanket for seating. A concession stand will be operated at the Sawmill Creek Park by Glen Burnie Boys Baseball beginning at 6 p.m. Boy Scout Troop 873 will help clean up afterward.

For information, call the GBIA at 410-766-6760.

Fireworks displays at Fort George G. Meade, in Baltimore and Annapolis as well as the annual Severna Park parade will follow on July Fourth itself. For more details see www.hometownglenburnie.com.

2 killed in county crashes on Saturday

MILLERSVILLE - Two people were killed on Saturday in unrelated car crashes across the county. An Arnold man died and his passenger was in serious condition following a single-vehicle crash in Arnold.

Kevin Shawn Hadley, 43, was driving northbound on Boulters Way around 12:30 a.m. when he lost control of his 2005 BMW Z4 on a left-hand curve and struck several trees. He was pronounced dead at the scene, according to county firefighters.

Mr. Hadley's passenger, Fariba Atuallah Partawi, 47, of Arnold was taken by state police helicopter to University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with non-life threatening head and neck injuries.

Shortly before 3 p.m., Jeffrey Cissel Grauel, 41, was killed when he lost control of a 1994 Toyota pickup on Brock Bridge Road and crashed into several vehicles, county police said.

His passenger, Marcus Dagraca, 47, of Glen Burnie, was taken to the trauma center at Prince George's Hospital Center with multiple injuries. His condition was not immediately available.

Four other vehicles were involved in the crash, police said, and at least three other people were injured, but none had life-threatening injuries, county firefighters said.

Police targeting roads for holiday

MILLERSVILLE - For the next two weeks, county police will be on a heightened lookout for aggressive and intoxicated drivers under an enforcement initiative to enhance safe travel throughout the Fourth of July holiday.

Starting today, officers will be posted along Routes 10, 32, and 100 in marked and unmarked cars, motorcycles, and "unconventional vehicles" to spot speeding drivers, hazardous motorcycle maneuvers, drunken driving, and equipment violations, like faulty vehicle lighting.

The initiative ends July 13.

"Aggressive driving, speeding, and overall unsafe motor vehicle operations contribute to the number and severity of crashes occurring on Anne Arundel County roadways," said Col. James Teare Sr., chief of county police.

Police said incidents of aggressive driving and speeding continue to be a significant concern, particularly those on limited-access highways with speeds of 55 mph and higher.

Correction

Because of erroneous information provided by school officials, a story in the Maryland Gazette on Saturday incorrectly identified the department from which 11 library and media services jobs were cut as part of wider reductions. The jobs were in the Curriculum and Instruction Department.

We regret the error.