4 FOR 5
&
Quartet of actors to take on grueling five-act “Hamlet” A-13
The Gazette GERMANTOWN | POOLESVILLE | BOYDS
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
25 cents
State tries to settle suit with coal plant
Hot dogs make an end-of-summer splash
Maryland Department of the Environment cites company for polluting waterways n
BY
KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
Maryland hopes to settle with the operator of a coal power plant in Dickerson that it sued for polluting local waterways. The Maryland Department of the Environment sued Delaware-based GenOn MidAtlantic and GenOn Chalk Point in U.S. District Court in June, claiming the Dickerson Electric Generating Station and Chalk Point Electric Generating Station in Prince George’s County pumped higher-than-allowed
Manchester Farm Pool in Germantown, in an annual Labor Day tradition, lets dogs close the pool season by jumping in.
levels of chemicals into local bodies of water. MDE Spokesman Jay Apperson said the parties in the case have asked the court to put the case on hold for 120 days as they attempt to settle. As of Tuesday the stay had not been granted. The state is seeking monetary penalties and for the court to require GenOn to stop what is says in its June 11 complaint are “ongoing violations of state and federal water pollution laws.” It is asking the court charge GenOn a civil penalty of up to $37,500 per violation per day for violations of the federal Clean Water Act beginning Jan. 13, 2009, and $32,500 for violations that occurred earlier. It
See SUIT, Page A-7
GEORGE P. SMITH/FOR THE GAZETTE
County to unveil steps for food recovery program n
Believed to be first countywide program in country BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County is preparing to unveil a new program for connecting sources of unused food with people who need it. The county’s food recovery network is expected to make it easier to collect unused food and get it to nonprofit agencies who feed the hungry. The program will deal with both planned food recoveries — when a supermarket knows it will have meat, dairy,
produce or other products that will be past their sell-by date and can schedule the products to be picked up — and unplanned pickups, taking food that wasn’t served from large weddings or catering events, said Richard Romer, who works for Montgomery County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin. Ervin helped form a work group that developed recommendations on creating a food recovery program for the county. The work group was scheduled to release its finding at a press conference Sept. 10. The group plans to set up both a central phone number to help set up food collections, as well as a mobile phone app to help connect providers with distributors,
Romer said. A survey of grocery stores in the county found there aren’t many who don’t already donate products to organizations to feed the hungry, but restaurants and caterers may be more of an untapped market, said Jenna Umbriac, director of nutrition programs for Manna Food Center in Gaithersburg, which provides food for more than 3,500 families each month. According to the group’s website, one in four county residents is at risk of hunger, and 32 percent of Montgomery County Public Schools students qualify for free or reduced-price meals. People are sometimes reluctant to
See FOOD, Page A-7
Statewide program protects victims of domestic violence n
Safe at Home offers confidentiality of addresses BY
KATE ROYALS
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Leah talks about the Maryland Safe at Home program, which provides victims of domestic violence with a substitute address for them to use for mail.
After filing a restraining order against her abusive ex-husband and buying a house to live in with her children, a Montgomery County woman who goes by the name of Leah struggled to keep her address secret from
her abuser. Even with the restraining order, he continued to harass her, making threatening phone calls and blocking her car from leaving a parking lot. In 2008, the Motor Vehicle Administration asked her for her new address while she was re-registering a car she still owned with her exspouse. She realized that if she provided it, her abuser, who was in and out of jail,
For sexual assault victims, volunteers answer the call ‘We’re just there with them, we’re not deciding if their story is right or not’ n
BY
KARA ROSE
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
It might be 8 a.m. on a Tuesday. Maybe it’s 10 p.m. on a Wednesday, or 1 a.m. on a Sunday. Whenever that beeper sounds, the on-duty volunteer at the county’s Victim Assistance and Sexual Assault Program springs to action.
The 24-hour, seven days a week crisis intervention program is an agency of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services and is staffed by mental health professionals and trained volunteers. When the crisis center is contacted by the police department or the hospital about a victim of rape or sexual assault coming forward, the onduty volunteer will be paged. The volunteer is sometimes given in-
See VOLUNTEERS, Page A-12
See VICTIMS, Page A-10
NEWS
SPORTS
Politician visited several startups at the county business incubator during a tour Thursday.
For first time in four years, Alex Holston won’t dominate county’s volleyball season.
A-4
B-1
BUSINESSES WELCOME DELANEY
2011 FILE PHOTO
The state is trying to settle its water-pollution suit against the owners of the coal-fired Dickerson Electric Generating Station on the Potomac River.
VOLLEYBALL: THE END OF AN ERA
Automotive Calendar Classified Community News Entertainment Opinion School News Sports Please
RECYCLE
B-14 A-2 B-10 A-4 A-13 A-8 B-8 B-1
Check out our Services Directory ADVERTISING INSIDE B SECTION
1906615