Joe,

You're entitled to say "I told you so..."

I was (and still am) an advocate of including some of the areas around Ocean Pines in the Ocean Pines Sanitary Service Area...especially based upon the original statements by county personnel that a rating of 2.5 mgd at the OP plant could be achieved with what amounted to a simple paperwork re-rating of the facility and did not involve extensive capital improvements.

In my minds eye I considered it reasonable to include Pennington Commons, Bay Pointe and some of the areas contiguous to the Pines with failing septic systems since there was minimum cost involved in doing so (and the cost could be shouldered by the new users)...up to the 2.5 mgd originally discussed.

What I heard in the report from Dennis Escher far exceeded what was originally discussed by the commissioners...and like you I was taken aback that the county had not pressed ahead in seeking the 2.5 mgd rating since they are already moving to bring these other areas into the plant. It makes no sense to hold off in obtaining what, according to their sources, is pretty much a done deal while hoping to catch the brass ring for even more capacity (that could likely involve substantial cost) somewhere down the road. Basically I consider this as spending the EDUs before they have them in hand.

Another thing that struck a sour note with me is, while the commissioners were celebrating the exemption from from the Flush Fee and touting the high quality of the OP Plant discharge, Mr. Escher was talking about some potentially costly modifications to the OP outfall, ranging from extending it further down the St. Martin River to a connection with the Ocean City outfall. If our discharge is currently meeting all MDE criteria for the river it indicates to me that they expect to significantly increase the amount of discharge...and somewhere in that process I agree it is likely that current OP rate payers will take a significant hit.

The water line between Glenn Riddle and Ocean Pines touted as helping to solve a shortfall in South OP during peak times also took on a funny smell when John Tustin commented something to the effect that during off peak the flow could be reversed and the Riddle Farms area served from the OP source (taking the more expensive to operate Glenn Riddle treatment plant off-line?). I interpreted what I heard as placing additional drain on the high-quality OP water source to serve Glenn Riddle and reduce their operating cost...would there be any compensation to OP rate payers in that scenario? The comment was barely audible near the end of the discussion, but you should have it on your video.

As to coverage of this in the paper...it will be a simple presentation of facts and people are free to draw their own conclusions...unless and until a decision is reached to speak out on the topic. For now any negative spin is my own.

Most certainly OP residents will be helped along in their assessment by your commentary on the topic. Keep everybody on their toes Joe...this thing is probably going to be a major issue further down the road.

Bob Lassahn