Around Ocean Pines

Commentary by Joe Reynolds

Have the lot owners of Ocean Pines been saddled with millions of dollars of debt for a sewage treatment plant expansion to primarily subsidize land owners outside Ocean Pines?

Has the county paid too little attention to health hazards in the county-owned Ocean Pines system while expressing great concern about private, failing septic systems outside Ocean Pines?

Mounting, convincing evidence suggests the answer to both questions may be “yes.”

At times a substantial amount of the flow into the Ocean Pines plant is from groundwater intrusion -- a fancy way of saying the plant is treating rain water, mainly as a result of 300 or more leaking holding tanks scattered about Ocean Pines in the front of lots.

During one rainy day this summer the plant received flows at rates nearly three times design capacity! Partially treated effluent was dumped into the St. Martins River, and failure of the flow meter on the outflow pipe was a violation of the state discharge permit.

This ground water intrusion problem has existed for well over ten years; the county has not replaced even half of the known problem tanks. Treating rainwater is costly; other consequences of ground water intrusion may cause a health hazard to people in the community. Water intrusion is a problem during every rain, not just heavy rain.

The Ocean Pines system does not utilize gravity to carry sewage from homes to the plant. Instead there are sewage holding tanks approximately every four lots. Flush a toilet and the sewage runs into one of these holding tanks. Once the sewage level in the tank reaches a certain level, a vacuum pipe connected to the tank opens and the contents are “sucked” through underground pipes to large pumping stations, and then to the treatment plant. Without vacuum, the tanks overflow and raw sewage spills on to the lawns and gardens of lot owners.

Vacuum loss can happen in times of heavy rain. Leaking tanks receive a continuous flow of rain water, keeping the vacuum line open. As a result there may be insufficient vacuum to pump out other tanks and they overflow. Any raw sewage overflow is not noticed by lot owners due to the already extremely wet conditions caused by the heavy rain.

During dry periods the problem is reversed. Raw sewage leaches out of the leaking holding tanks into the surrounding soil.

County public works staff doesn’t even give straight answers to <!--?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" ?-->County Commissioners. A perfect example is Public Works Director John Tustin’s failure to accurately answer leaking tank questions raised by Commissioner Boggs at the October 5^th commissioners meeting.

Despite the long-term ground water intrusion problems, the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Advisory Committee, chaired by Dart Way, seems more intent on bringing outside subdivisions into Ocean Pines via a $6+ million expansion than protecting the health and pocketbooks of Ocean Pines residents.

Let’s examine the current expansion in light of information obtained from written documents submitted to the County Commissioners. The facts are revealing.

A September 22, 2004 letter from Way’s committee explains how the original 1.5 million gallons per day (mgd) plant could handle 1.65 mgd after improvements costing about $500,000. Other estimates have placed the cost at $250,000 or less.

Another September 23, 2004 memorandum from Public Works states existing connections contribute an average flow of 187 gallons per day (gpd) during peak flow periods.

This means a 1.65 mgd plant could handle a potential 8,823 connections at peak flow, even without the existing holding ponds -- safety valves designed to handle unusual flow spikes.

The county says Ocean Pines at buildout will require 9,342 connections. Nearly everyone agrees, including Commissioner Tom Cetola, that as many as 300 of the dedicated Ocean Pines connections will never be made. Thus the Ocean Pines subdivision needs about 9000 connections and 8,823 of them could be handled without the $6+ million expansion.

The county will say it must design the plant based on flows of 250 gpd per connection. However, no less an authority than the Maryland Department of Planning suggested the Ocean Pines plant be limited to the existing service area and ultimate plant size be based on actual flows, not design flows.

One thing is clear to anyone closely examining available public data – the county could have satisfied the needs of Ocean Pines for far less than $6+ million. Ocean Pines lot owners can do little or nothing about it now -- except perhaps make a case the county is violating its own Rate Payers Financial Protection Policy.

Private homes and businesses outside Ocean Pines, like McDonalds, may indeed have problems; if the county decides to subsidize the cost of solving private problems, it should at least do so with money from all tax payers; placing the burden totally on the backs of Ocean Pines residents is unconscionable.

As for leaking sewage tanks, residents should adamantly insist the county correct the problems and address associated health hazards within the Ocean Pines subdivision.

Joe Reynolds, a 14-year resident of Ocean Pines, is founder of OceanPinesForum.com. Contact Joe at jr@oceanpinesforum.com.