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Refuse dump litters county land
Hermanville property bought three years ago
Friday, Oct. 16, 2009
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by JASON BABCOCK
Trash, including old tires and parts of major appliances, was found Wednesday on 158 acres of county owned land at Forest Park Road and Route 235 in Hermanville. If that part of the property is developed, the mess would have to be removed.
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St. Mary's County government has another tire dump on one of its properties. Tires, bottles, cans, large appliance parts, coiled fencing, a washing machine and a water heater lie in gullies and streams in the woods on 158 acres off Route 235 in Hermanville.
County government bought the old farmland in Aug. 24, 2006, for $2.5 million to preserve it from development. Since then five lots have been donated to Patuxent Habitat for Humanity and the St. Mary's County Department of Economic and Community development is working to get a farmers market established there.
The trash found is not around those specific sites. "This is the first I've heard about dumping," said Liz Passarelli, property manager for county government, when asked about the dump on Thursday.
After the county bought the land, "We burned the old buildings down and removed farm equipment," she said.
"I haven't walked the property," said Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D). He said of the trash found there, "It wouldn't surprise me. That wouldn't be unusual for an old farm. It's like what we found up there on the trail at Laurel Grove. That's what you find when you start developing property."
As the Three Notch Trail developed southward from Charlotte Hall, a tire heap was discovered on the county owned-right of way and has since been removed. A massive tire dump was also discovered on the county's trash convenience center property in Oakville in 2001. Four hundred tons of tires were removed there by 2005. The state paid for most of that cleanup.
"I walked the [Fenwick Ridge] property with a couple of my [agricultural] commission members," years ago, said Donna Sasscer, county government agricultural specialist. She didn't recall seeing any massive dump. She said of the trash there, "It's not a problem to get rid of."
It's not known if the refuse was dumped before or after the county bought the land. The dirt driveway is open from the highway and there are no signs posted on the property.
"I thought there was a gate across that," Mattingly said.
"It's not a park, it's just a piece of county-owned land," Sasscer said.
Passarelli said she would work with staff to get the driveway gated to prevent any future dumping.
St. Mary's County has $187,241 from state cigarette lawsuit restitution funds to build a farmers market there and a co-op of farmers is in place to operate the market.
"We have funding available to us," Sasscer said. The project is going through technical development evaluation now and the Maryland State Highway Administration may require commercial upgrades to the entrance to the market off Route 235. If that is required, "then funding is a problem," Sasscer said, because there wouldn't be enough to build the roadway improvements.
"I don't understand what they're requiring down there," Mattingly said. "I imagine we'll have discussions with state highway to see if they'll back off that requirement."
