Letter below sent on OPA Letterhead stating Board position on sewage expansion for Pennington Commons and other outside areas.

December 22, 2004

John E. Bloxom, President
Worcester County Commissioners
Worcester County Government Center
One W. Market Street
Snow Hill, MD 21863

RE: Expansion of Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Service Area

Dear Mr. Bloxom:

The Ocean Pines Association, Inc., Board of Directors has not, to date, issued any formal opinion on the process the county is undergoing to expand the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Service area.  We have, instead, been communicating with our two representatives on the commission in the hope that they would represent the views of Ocean Pines.

The two commissioners who represent Ocean Pines have taken opposite sides of this issue.  So it is time for the Ocean Pines Board of Directors to speak directly to you and all sitting county commissioners on this issue.

Simply put:

1. We understand that the County Commissioners, on a vote of 4 for, 3 against, have approved a change to the Worcester County Water and Wastewater master plan in order to allow for the expansion of the Ocean Pines Service Area.  Further, that this expansion is designed to take in 150,000 gallons per day of sewage from the expanded area in addition to the 2.35 million gallons per day that the current plant is being modified to process in order to serve the existing Ocean Pines subdivision.

2. In very simplistic terms, we understand that the process necessary to increase the capacity of the plant to 2.5 million gallons per day in order to accept the additional 150,000 gallons per day needed to service the expanded area has three essential steps:
   a. The modification of the county’s water and wastewater plan, which the commissioners have done.
   b. An engineering study that proves that the plant capacity can be increased to 2.5 million gallons per day without degrading the cleanliness of the outflow from the plant.  We’re told by county staff that this engineering study is in progress.
   c. Last, and most important, the county must obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, which is issued by the Maryland
Department of the Environment.  THIS PERMIT USUALLY TAKES A MINIMUM OF EIGHT WORKING MONTHS TO OBTAIN according to county staff.

3. The developer of Pennington Commons, which will require roughly 91 E.D.U.’s, or 23,000 gallon per day of this additional capacity, has posted a $1,000,000 bond in order to buy into the Ocean Pines system, and has advised the County Commissioners that they must have an answer in early January, 2005, in order to meet their construction schedule.

The Ocean Pines Board of Directors cannot disagree with expanding the Service Area because the County Commissioners have already voted on that issue and approved it.

We cannot interrupt the engineering study currently underway in order to demonstrate that the plant capacity can easily be increased to 2.5 million gallons per day.

However, we can, and do, object most strenuously to the fact that the county commissioners seem to be prepared to utilize capacity THAT HAS NOT YET BEEN ISSUED A NPDES DISCHARGE PERMIT in order to accommodate a developer.  There are no guarantees that this permit will be issued.  In layman’s terms, the commissioners are ignoring the most important step in the process:  you’re getting ready to expand capacity from 2.35 million gallons per day to 2.5 million gallons per day without having anywhere to dispose of the additional 150,000 gallons per day of processed water!

So, if the commissioners decide to accommodate one developer who has placed a significant amount of money next to a demand that you hurry your decision and ignore the time it takes to make the process work properly, are you doing the best thing you can do for the county?

We think not.

We firmly believe the county must honor its commitment to the existing Ocean Pines subdivision.  That means that you do not use the 2.35 million gallons per day of processing power that the Ocean Pines plant will be capable of when the expansion that is now in progress is complete to do anything but service the existing Ocean Pines subdivision. We’re paying for this plant and the expansion to meet our anticipated needs and we fully expect the county to honor its commitment to Ocean Pines before it makes any other commitments on wastewater processing through this plant. 

If the county commissioners use part of the 2.35 million gallons per day capacity designed to service the Ocean Pines subdivision (and paid for by Ocean Pines) to service anyone outside the Ocean Pines subdivision, you are making Ocean Pines take the risk that the Maryland Department of the Environment will, in fact, issue a NPDES Discharge permit somewhere in the future.  Without this permit, the plant will not be able to service both the Ocean Pines subdivision AND the expanded service area that the commissioners have created.  We cannot support that action in any way, shape or form.  The developer, who stands to profit handsomely from getting sewer processing capacity from Ocean Pines, should take the risk.  This means that the county should have a discharge permit IN HAND BEFORE any plant capacity is allocated. 

President Bloxom, it is relatively quick and easy to decide to expand the processing capacity of the Ocean Pines plant, but it takes lots of time and a bit of a gamble to get permission to use that capacity (i.e., to discharge the processed water).  We don’t believe that the folks who are paying for enough capacity to fulfill the needs of their community should have to gamble any of that capacity in order to make a developer happy.

Before the County Commissioners decide to process more sewage in Ocean Pines than the 2.35 million gallons per day needed to meet Ocean Pines requirements at complete buildout, you need to figure out what to do with the additional processed water that will come from an enlarged plant.  And we need more than verbal promises that the county can meet its commitment to Ocean Pines.  One suggestion:  why don’t the county commissioners demand that the developer of Pennington Commons place the acreage on which he now holds permits to build a treatment plant and spray irrigation area into escrow to the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Enterprise Zone until such time as the NPDES discharge permit is granted to the county by the Maryland Department of the Environment?  This way, we’re all sure that the additional processed waste water from Pennington Commons can be discharged though spray irrigation even if a permit to increase the discharge from the Ocean Pines plant into the St. Martins River is denied.

This letter expresses the unanimous opinion of the Ocean Pines Board of Directors.

Sincerely,

Dan Stachurski, President
Ocean Pines Association, Inc., Board of Directors

CC:  Dave Ferguson, OPA Directors, all County Commissioners