Around Maryland

When Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. pulled the plug on the Red Line in 2015, he slammed the long-planned Baltimore project, calling it a “wasteful boondoggle.” The nearly $1 billion in federal funding that Maryland had secured to build the rail line was returned to the U.S. Treasury for use elsewhere. Seven years later, the Maryland Transit Administration has unveiled a new set of transit options that would serve the Baltimore region in similar ways. The agency hopes the public will study the options and offer comments.

The Maryland Department of the Environment may still impose upon counties stormwater pollution-prevention standards more stringent than those called for under the federal Clean Water Act, the state’s top court ruled Wednesday in rejecting Queen Anne’s County’s argument that the court should overturn its similar 2019 decision. Citing its earlier ruling as binding precedent, the Court of Appeals said MDE acted within its Clean Water Act authority when it issued a permit holding the county responsible for stormwater runoff to the Chesapeake Bay not only from the county’s Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems – known as MS4s – but from natural “nonpoint” sources such as parking lots and fields.

When Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. pulled the plug on the Red Line in 2015, he slammed the long-planned Baltimore project, calling it a “wasteful boondoggle.” The nearly $1 billion in federal funding that Maryland had secured to build the rail line was returned to the U.S. Treasury for use elsewhere. Seven years later, the Maryland Transit Administration has unveiled a new set of transit options that would serve the Baltimore region in similar ways. The agency hopes the public will study the options and offer comments.

An annual burn ban went into effect June 1 in Frederick County and will last until Aug. 31. The Frederick County Health Department implements the burn ban every summer due to air quality regulations from the state, said Laura Pfeiffer, an environmental health specialist at the Health Department. Things like brush, yard debris and tree limbs that are 6 inches or less cannot be burned during the 90 days, said Fire Marshal Battalion Chief Troy Grossnickle.

Covid-19 vaccination shots for the youngest Americans could begin as soon as June 21, the White House said on Thursday. The vaccination program for children younger than 5 would come more than two years after vaccines were first approved for adults. Dr. Ashish Jha, White House coronavirus response coordinator, laid out a timeline for authorization of vaccines for children younger than 5 at an afternoon news briefing. The US Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisers will review data submitted by Pfizer and Moderna during a meeting on June 14-15, and the agency will then decide whether to authorize the vaccines for emergency use.

Baltimore City kicked off Pride Month in a big way with a couple of firsts – announcing a brand new office for LGBTQ+ affairs and its new director. Committing to making the city more LGBTQ-friendly, Mayor Brandon Scott introduced Londyn Smith-De Richelieu, the city’s very first Director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs. “This month we celebrate the contributions of the community that has progressed leaps and bounds, and we continue to build on that progress to ensure that Baltimore remains a safe haven and inviting place for this community to thrive,” Scott said.

With hurricane season now underway, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management is reminding residents to “Know Your Zone” in the event of an evacuation order due to severe weather. The state has three zones — marked A, B and C — covering coastal areas along the Eastern and Western Shores of the Chesapeake Bay, the beach areas of Wicomico and Worcester counties, and southern counties on the Potomac River. According to the agency, 2020 set a record for named hurricanes on the Atlantic coast. Last September, the remnants of Hurricane Ida brought severe winds — including tornados — and flooding to Anne Arundel, Cecil and Montgomery counties.