Search Result for reutter

There were 62 articles

Severstal draining benzene-tainted Sparrows Point oil reluctantly — and very slowly
First opposed by the steel company, but now trumpeted as a symbol of its environmental commitment, their pump extracts a relative thimble-full of polluted oil a day.
Catholic and Episcopal bishops call for health study of Sparrows Point pollution
Clerics’ plea for an investigation of Bear Creek pollution is batted aside by EPA, which wants to delay action until completion of an offshore study . . . that Severstal is disputing.
Strange silence from Maryland politicians on Sparrows Point pollution
With pollutants like benzene oozing into the groundwater and air — right next to 20,000 Maryland residents and water leading to Chesapeake Bay — the Severstal steel mill should have Maryland’s political leaders howling. Why has there been hardly a peep?
A resident and a reporter talk on the radio about Sparrows Point
“We started seeing fish kills. There were different kinds of odors from the water. I started noticing that a lot of the women in my age group were having breast cancer.” (Turners Station resident Maxine Thompson, a guest yesterday, along with Brew writer Mark Reutter, discussing Sparrows Point pollution on Marc Steiner’s radio show.)
Mark Reutter to go on WYPR and WEAA
Baltimore Brew contributor Mark Reutter will be on the radio today to talk about the Severstal steel mill at Sparrows Point. He’ll be on Mark Steiner’s show on 88.9 FM WEAA at 6 p.m., along with Turners Station activist Maxine Thompson, who will talk about the human cost of pollution at ‘”The Point.” They have invited the [...]
Steelmaking at Sparrows Point to continue through July
Decision by Severstal owner Alexei Mordashov to delay shutdown means that furnaces won’t reopen until at least October – or twice the period originally announced.
Birthday bash for a Maryland bridge – historic Thomas Viaduct
It’s rare to celebrate the anniversary of a bridge, but then again Baltimore’s 175-year-old Thomas Viaduct is no ordinary structure.
Tempers flare at Sparrows Point pollution meeting
A spreading benzene plume leaching into groundwater, an unlined landfill and plans to create a new landfill were among the environmental problems at the steel mill that residents say state and federal officials are mishandling.
Steelmaking’s future at Sparrows Point: uncertain
In an e-mail to members, union chief John Cirri said, “Our furnace being shut down is a dark moment in our history. Also, a dark moment is your union being shut out of very important decisions being made that will affect the livelihood of its members…
Mark Reutter on WYPR’s Maryland Morning on Friday
Friday morning at 9 a.m. you can catch Baltimore Brew contributor Mark Reutter on the radio talking to WYPR’s Sheilah Kast about expected layoffs at Sparrows Point and the Russian slabs that have been arriving at the plant in recent days.
“Buy America” rules will complicate use of Russian steel at Sparrows Point
Severstal Sparrows Point – and its customers – will be walking a legal tightrope in the coming weeks because the steel slabs the company has just imported from Russia are barred from projects funded with federal dollars, including federal stimulus money.
“Buy America” provisions require that all processes that melt, make or modify the shape of steel must be conducted within U.S. borders.
Phyllis Seward: an activist who tried to stop pollution at Turners Station
On Wednesday night, more than 100 Turners Station residents and a handful of health and environmental advocates paid tribute to Phyllis Seward’s life, as she rested in death at New Shiloh Baptist Church. Seward had lost her battle with cancer that she was convinced had a connection to the steel plant.
The Russian steel has arrived
Close to 1,000 slabs of Russian steel have been unloaded from a Bulgarian ship at Severstal Sparrows Point in anticipation of using the metal to fulfill customer orders when the steelmaking side of the complex is idled next month.
Baltimore Brew goes international
Recently, Baltimore Brew found itself being filmed by a six-person news crew from NHK — Japan’s version of the BBC — and this surreal experience, Brew readers, requires more than a Tweet to convey.
Steel slabs, soon to arrive from Russia, will escalate Sparrows Point dispute
Severstal is shipping steel slabs from Russia, an action that is sure to inflame union-management tensions as the Sparrows Point steel mill prepares for a temporary shutdown of its furnaces.
As union and management bicker over jobs, Sparrows Point faces big challenges from other mills: ANALYSIS
Make no mistake: Severstal’s decision to idle the steelmaking side of Sparrows Point for about 30 days goes beyond the need “to balance inventories” in a weakening market, as the company stated in a release late Friday.
Severstal confirms temporary shut down of steelmaking side of Sparrows Point
Severstal issued the following statement to the Brew tonight: “The primary steel making facilities at Severstal Sparrows Point will be idled in response to weakening market conditions as well as the need to balance inventories within the plant. The facilities will be idled for about 30 days beginning in late June but no later than [...]
Raymond V. Haysbert: the hard-won wisdom of a Baltimore trail blazer
Ray Haysbert, who died Monday at age 90, possessed “Yoda-like qualities,” according to Baltimore screenwriter Peter Allen. Another friend, Bernie Harper, said: “You could write a novel about Ray.” Ray’s life certainly had the twists of a Dickens page-turner. Born into savage poverty in Cincinnati (three of his younger siblings died while he was still [...]
Sparrows Point police chief fired, adding to concerns about port security
David Fyhr, chief of police at Severstal Sparrows Point, has been sacked a year before his expected retirement, leaving the steel mill, which sits at the head of Baltimore harbor and doubles as a deep-water port, without any regular law enforcement officers. ((UPDATE: Read on for response from Baltimore County police and the Coast Guard.)) [...]
Severstal asserts confidentiality in Sparrows Point “belching” probe
by MARK REUTTER Severstal Sparrows Point says that nearly all of the documents subpoenaed by state environmental officials examining dirty-gas “belches” at the steel mill are protected from public disclosure. Of nearly 2,700 pages submitted to the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), Severstal asserts that all but 29 pages “contain trade secrets and other [...]
Severstal and union agree to extend restructuring talks at Sparrows Point
by MARK REUTTER Severstal North America and the United Steelworkers union agreed yesterday to extend the existing contract for another 120 days – officially to “engage in problem-solving … that will benefit our employees,” but in reality to hammer out job restructuring at Sparrows Point and other Severstal mills.
Dead factories, lively neighborhoods and the ghosts of working Baltimore: the May Day Roll
A group of 26 bicyclists got a chance to view Baltimore history over the top of their handlebars Saturday, as they cycled through the city for the May Day Roll. The 12-mile guided tour took us through Baltimore’s back alleys and dirt roads — from the former workers’ cottage of Hampden-Woodberry’s Stone Hill, to the [...]
Biking into Baltimore History: Part 3 – Conflict on the Docks
by MARK REUTTER It was a scene worthy of On the Waterfront. On December 19, 1936, a group of Baltimore seamen, striking to win better pay and working conditions, were confronted by a surprise visit from the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). Big, burly Joseph P. Ryan – who was to become the [...]
Biking into Baltimore History: Part 2 – The Bottlecap Capital of the World
In anticipation of Saturday’s May Day Roll, co-sponsored by Baltimore Brew and Baltimore Bicycle Works, here’s a sketch of our second destination. by MARK REUTTER Like so much of old Baltimore, it’s a bit ghostly, especially when the evening sun reflects off its opaque windows and casts a weird rosy glow above a neighborhood it [...]
Learn about Baltimore’s labor history — by bike!
Want to get post-industrial AND sweaty this weekend? Baltimore Brew and Baltimore Bicycle Works present the third annual “May Day Roll.” Come join us Saturday, May 1, for a guided tour of Baltimore’s rich and varied labor heritage in celebration of International Workers’ Day. Our two-wheeled tour will begin in the Jones Falls Valley, site [...]