Jacksonville Real Estate Agent

New Baltimore County Recycling Begins February 1, 2010

On December 10, 2009, I announced the new Baltimore County Single Stream Recycling being implemented on February 1, 2010.

Well, here we are in late January, and it is coming very soon!

Here are the details — it’s SO easy — now everyone in Baltimore County can recycle without having to think too much about it!

What’s new & easy?

• It all goes into the same container! LIDS, CAPS, LABELS & RINGS are accepted now. No throwing the cap of the milk jug or soda bottle away anymore.
• Juice cartons, aluminium pans, AEROSOL cans, frozen food boxes — ALL NOW ACCEPTED!

The changes you need to make:

• NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS. They will not be accepting plastics/glass/etc in grocery bags anymore. (So now is the time to start using those reusable bags you may have for your groceries!)
• You can put your recyclables in small cardboard boxes, in 34 gallon or less recycling containers, or 34 gallon or less trash containers marked with an “X” or “RECYCLE”.

Click here for the Baltimore County Single Stream Recycling website for all of the details.

I am thrilled that Baltimore County is implementing this new recycling system as the ease should help more residents to be involved in the program! Join in!

Homeowners awarded an average of $693,000 for losses in Jacksonville House Values due to Exxon Spill

Jacksonville, Maryland is a quiet area in Northeast Baltimore County. The area is also known as Phoenix, Maryland.

Life there was generally uneventful until one fateful day in 2006 when an underground pipe at the Exxon Gas Station at Jarrettsville Pike & Paper Mill Roads began to leak — releasing 26,000 gallons of fuel into the ground.  The leak was not detected for 37 days due to an alarm reset issue.

After that, Jacksonville homes in the area had their wells contaminated and house values plummeted.  While homes in the neighborhoods used to sell for anywhere from $300,000 to over $1 million, they were basically unsaleable.  The leak exposed homeowners to to methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which has not been conclusively linked to cause cancer in humans, but has not been determined as safe either.

After a five month trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court, a jury awarded the homeowners about $150 million as compensation for the drop in their value of their Jacksonville property, their pain and suffering and for medical monitoring.  The average award for the drop in property values was $693,000.

Forbes reported on the verdict in favor of the plaintiffs, also indicating that not all homeowners were happy with the result.

Though I am pleased that the jury found in the homeowners’ favor and that they were awarded compensation for this preventable mess, I am saddened that this beautiful area now has this stigma attached to it.

My hope is that the MTBE will filter its way out over the next few years, and this can just be a horrible memory, though I feel that the likelyhood of that happening is unfortunately slim.