[CPEO-MEF] Proximity of old dump to school investigated

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Maryland
Proximity of old dump to school investigated
Testing undertaken at Manor View Elementary
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By Rona Kobell
Sun Staff
Originally published April 6, 2003

A 60-year-old trash dump that construction workers recently discovered
at Fort Meade likely extends onto an elementary school's property, Army
officials said yesterday.

Army officials, who discovered the dump's potential proximity to Manor
View Elementary School late last week, notified the school liaison
officer, a base employee who works with the Anne Arundel County Board of
Education, on Friday.

Though the school is county-run, the county leases the property from the
Army and most of the pupils come from military families who live on the
Odenton base.

"We know it's at the fence line. We know it extends onto the property -
we just don't know how far," Fort Meade environmental engineer Jim
Gebhardt said yesterday. "Looking at the aerial photo, it's a
possibility it could extend to the school's front door."

County schools Superintendent Eric J. Smith said in a telephone
interview yesterday that neither he nor Associate Superintendent Kenneth
Lawson knew about the dump.

Smith said he planned to talk with top Army officials when he returned
from a business trip to determine what, if any, precautions were needed
to protect pupils and faculty at the school.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/annearundel/bal-ar.meade06apr06,0,7899099.story?coll=bal-local-arundel

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