Maryland's Department of the Environment has dropped its effort to make an Eldersburg builder remove tree stumps and other construction debris that he buried on a subdivision lot.
The state agency rescinded its complaint after builder Michael Reeves told department officials that he had county government permission to bury leftover construction materials, tree stumps and limbs on a lot in Homedale subdivision. Mr. Reeves and developer Henry L. Blevins are completing the 40-year-old subdivision on Klee Mill Road in South Carroll County.
"I did what the county allowed to be done," Mr. Reeves said last week.
Buried wood has become an issue locally because it may decay, causing soil above it to collapse. Complaints from Carroll homeowners about sinkholes in their yards surged in 1994.
From 1989 to 1994, the county water resources staff positively or tentatively identified 52 sinkholes caused by soil collapsing above buried debris. In the past year, the number doubled.
Catherine M. Rappe, water resources bureau chief, said county government has reports of 363 sinkholes in Carroll, including others caused by the water dissolving underground limestone.
Mr. Reeves was the first builder in Carroll County to be cited for burying construction debris.
Environmental agency spokesman Quentin Banks said the state dropped the citation after Mr. Reeves reported that county government officials allowed him to bury debris.
"Frankly, we'd lose it in court," Mr. Banks said.
Mr. Reeves met Feb. 2 with County Commissioner Richard T. Yates.
"It appears that one time the county told him he could bury stuff like that," the commissioner said after the meeting. "Once the county found out [burial violated] a state law, he was reported."
Mr. Yates said he agreed to Mr. Reeves' request for a letter saying that "what the county had told him was not correct. That seemed to satisfy him."
Mr. Reeves refused to discuss who in the county gave him approval to bury tree stumps and limbs.
"I think that is public information and you could get accurate information from the files rather than having me make a statement to you that may be misconstrued," he said.
Carroll government officials "didn't give him permission to bury tree stumps and debris," said J. Michael Evans, director of general services. But, Mr. Evans said, the county didn't forbid the practice until county officials learned that it violated state regulations.
County files show that inspectors checking the Homedale subdivision last Sept. 9, 13 and 30 saw the open pit where construction workers were placing limbs and other debris. The state environmental agency notified county government Sept. 26 that burial of stumps on building sites violates state regulations.
Mr. Banks said it is unusual for the state agency to drop a site complaint, "but it's usual to run into a situation where there was miscommunication between us and the county."
The agency has not allowed builders to bury construction debris, including tree limbs and stumps, on building sites since 1988. Carroll's permits and inspections staff continued to allow the practice, and county officials learned of the state regulation only last year after the Environmental Affairs Advisory Board formed a committee to study tree stump disposal.
Mr. Banks said the state agency issued 52 site complaints statewide in 1994 and 28 this year.