"Low water table troubles ended," reads a local newspaper's front-page headline.

The article references a problem with water pressure in Ocean Pines beginning Friday, June 21st. Worcester County imposed Conservation measures on June 22nd. Worcester County lifted those conservation measures on Monday, June 24th.

Thoughtful readers might ask, "How could low water tables be restored in a matter of days with no rainfall?"

And "therein lies the rub," to use an adaptation from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

The initial County press release mentioned "Riddle Farms and South Ocean Pines." Not mentioned in the press release is Worcester County is now pumping drinking water from the Ocean Pines Service Area to the Riddle Farms service area. Association members also need to know the County began trucking untreated raw sewage from Riddle Farms to the Ocean Pines plant over four years ago. An obvious question association members might ask is why the County is using Ocean Pines facilities to treat Riddle Farms sewage and supply water to Riddle Farms.

Concerning Riddle Farms sewage, the County approved the sewage system design and it operates the system. Apparently, expensive maintenance work was required on the Riddle Farms plant. Worcester Public Works accomplished some rework of the system but it eventually failed. Worcester Public Works hid this major sewage treatment failure from the County Commissioners for two years. That was perhaps four years ago and the Riddle Farms sewage treatment plant is still not operating properly. Don't be surprised if the County makes a direct sewer line connection from Riddle Farms to the Ocean Pines plant. Perhaps it happened or is in the planning stage.

A drinking water connection from Ocean Pines to Riddle Farms is already in place. The water and sewer connections from Ocean Pines, constructed under Turville Creek, were installed at great expense some years ago with little or no fanfare. The County claimed the purpose of the water and sewer connections between Ocean Pines and Riddle Farms was to provide backups for each service area in the event of emergencies.

Sounds good coming off the lips. Ocean Pines has about 8,500 homes. Riddle Farms about 650. Both also serve some commercial operations. Riddle Farms seems unable to produce adequate water from its own water supply system. The Riddle Farms sewage treatment system is on life support for over four years. What makes any reasonable person think the Riddle Farms sewage and water supply system could back up any substantive failure in Ocean Pines?

As a practical matter, the County spent a great deal of money to provide a backup system for Riddle Farms. How much have the Ocean Pines service area customers paid to provide this "backup system" compared to money from the Riddle Farms service area customers? We have no idea. 

When it comes to water and sewer in Worcester County, Ocean Pines service area customers tend to come out on the short end. The Ocean Pines system is the best technology possible. Ocean Pines homeowners paid for that superb system. Ocean Pines service area members also paid to create a system that is possibly two times more than needed, after County public works officials said a costly sewage treatment plant expansion was necessary only to serve the Ocean Pines subdivision. History proves that was never true. Who has reaped or will reap the financial benefits of this excess capacity?

Back to the relatively mundane low water pressure issue. The County says two water pumps used to fill the southside water tower failed, and blamed this on low water levels in the aquifers. Not stated is the real possibility these pumps failed was because the county was using those pumps to fill not only the Ocean Pines tower but the water tower for Riddle Farms.

The County says Riddle Farms is compensating the Ocean Pines area for the water, as well as the sewage treatment.

Based on information from a retired manager of the Ocean Pines service area, Ocean Pines takes water from a near-surface aquifer with excellent water requiring little treatment. The Riddle Farms wells go into a much deeper aquifer with water that requires very expensive treatment for the removal of iron and other elements. Ugh!

Ocean Pines Association members tend to think of the water and sewer system as "our system."

It is not "our system." It is owned - lock, stock, and barrel - by Worcester County. Nor is the County bashful about making that point as it moves forward with its long-term plan of tying several service areas together, including facilities as far away as those down on Route 611.

Today, with no end in sight, Worcester County uses the Ocean Pines service area to treat sewage from Riddle Farms and to supply drinking water to Riddle Farms, regardless of any possible adverse impact on people in Ocean Pines.