It has been 20 years now since a Northern Virginia developer first proposed building 2,501 homes accompanied by approximately 40 acres of commercial space in Trappe. A vote on Resolution 308 could determine how this project might proceed.

To recap on Lakeside, Trappe was stressed financially in 2002, and Rocks Engineering Co. promised to chip in for the town’s municipal services if the Town would annex his property and approve development. This included hiring a police officer and contributing $250,000 to the town’s Volunteer Fire Department. Rocks also agreed to build a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant.  

A referendum to annex 924 acres was passed in 2003; but a development that would quintuple Trappe’s population caused concerns, of course, as did the plan to initially connect up to 120 homes to an already underperforming wastewater treatment plant and spray irrigate 87 acres alongside Miles Creek with over 150,000 gallons of treated wastewater daily.

Councilmember Pete Lesher

Resolution 281, which provided the Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan amendment needed for the construction of Lakeside, was approved 4-1 by the Talbot County Council on August 11, 2020. But there was no mention of the County’s role in this process. Having discovered new worrisome information and hoping to “provide the County with some leverage to negotiate with this developer,” County Council Vice President Pete Lesher introduced Resolution 308 to rescind Resolution 281.

Councilmember Frank Divilio

In October, the Maryland Department of the Environment held a public hearing regarding a permit for the proposed new plant attended by over 100 concerned citizens, and by December Talbot County resident Dan Watson was finally granted an opportunity to present the data he had collected over the past decade.

One benefit of all of this is the opportunity to acquire a nodding acquaintance with Maryland environmental law. Section 9-503 of the Environmental Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland requires the Maryland Department of the Environment to issue and enforce permits according to regulatory standards; and Section 9-505 requires the county to be responsible for the oversight, planning, financing, and construction of sewerage systems. And the public “shall be heard.”

Council President Chuck Callahan

County Council President Callahan had recently shared this positive message: “I want citizens to know that as we move forward with several projects related to growth in our county in the coming year, my dedication is to preserve the character, natural beauty, and quality of life we have all grown to cherish here.”

With that in mind, the Council began an almost four hour discussion of the project.

First up: Resolution 308 to rescind Resolution 281 in order to amend and update the plan for Lakeside. Council Vice President Lesher suggested deferring this vote until the Planning Commission had offered their opinion. A heated discussion ensued.

“What does the Planning Commission need to address?” asked Councilman Divilio. The Planning Commission no longer supports Resolution 281, and over 3700 comments had been received since the October hearing. A heated discussion ensued.

Councilmember Laura Price

After debating issues of standards, compliance, authority, regulations, recommendations, clarifications and allegations, Councilwoman Price warned, “The Attorney General is going to side with the Planning Commission.” And, “Of all the issues we have voted upon, this is the most important.”

The heated discussion continued, but we might conclude that Councilmen Divilio and Pack were pretty much against further consideration, while Councilwoman Price and Council President Callahan leaned in the opposite direction. (Leaning was heavy, but an undercurrent of civility was maintained. The January 25 meeting can be viewed in its entirety  here. 

President Callahan then asked, “Do we want what’s best for Trappe? Do we want a healthy environment?”

Vice President Lesher moved the issue forward by proposing a Blue Amendment to Resolution 313. This amendment would require that any new additions to existing wastewater treatment would be subject to the existing plant being upgraded to be consistent with current standards. He also pointed out that this essentially reflected Planning Commission language and reiterated that any new connection would first require upgrade to ENR (state ranking) standards.

Councilwoman Price added that Resolution 313 should go to the Planning Commission next, but that meeting would not take place until March.

Council President Callahan suggested, “We’ll hopefully get more information in the next couple of weeks.”

Councilmember Corey Pack

Mr. Schmidt, a member of Trappe’s Town Council and Planning Commission, was then invited to speak. He insisted that Trappe’s plant is “not failing,” but “operating to its peak ability.” Rebuilt in 2008, it’s “upgrade is just short of ENR.” (“Enhanced Nutrient Removal”- which is the highest standard.  But it seems that existing facilities must meet only the requirements enforced when installed.)

Alan Girard of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation stated simply and clearly that the Trappe plant “needs to be upgraded” and “in line with expectations for ENR (higher ranking) treatment before connections are made.

Ryan Showalter, Attorney for Trappe East Business Holdings Trust, also waited hours to speak. He suggested that the Trappe plant “has capacity,” and that their “commitment in the long term is to meet requirements.” He reminded us that they had also “made commitments based upon approval of Resolution 281,” and Trappe’s plant is “in compliance with its permit.” 

 The meeting adjourned at 11:18 PM. No date has been set for the Council work session on Lakeside as of this report.

Selected Highlights

Before you even start reading this article, it’s important that you know I’m GUILTY. I did not admit my culpability when I interviewed Marion Arnold, Peggy Ford, and Elaine Tama from Plastic-Free Easton Group. I tsk-tsked in the appropriate places, but I was shifting uncomfortably in my seat. 

This is how Marion Arnold described the issue: “You’ve seen them. Tattered plastic bags hanging with impunity high up a tree after the foliage has dropped away. The clusters of soiled plastic bags along the roadside after tall grasses die back. Farm fields full of trashy plastic bags attached to the stubble following the fall harvest.”  

However, as the trio informed me, the problem goes far beyond keeping Easton beautiful. There is also the devasting ecological and environmental impact when these lightweight bags land along the waterways of the Eastern Shore, or when they entangle wildlife or fishing gear, or worse when the harmful and polluting chemicals used to manufacture them are released either during production or in their breakdown when they are discarded. 

At this point, I was thinking about my last trip to the grocery store when I ran in, forgetting the numerous reusable bags in my trunk. “That’s OK, I thought; I’ll recycle the plastic bags and use them to get rid of the kitty litter.” 

Yes, I am part of the problem.

Knowing that it all starts locally with people like me, Tama and Ford created the environmentally conscious group to keep Easton both green and beautiful. They were joined by others similarly interested, including Arnold. The group sat at the farmers market gathering signatures for a petition asking the Town of Easton to pass a law banning retail establishments within the town from making available free, single-use, carryout plastic bags to customers (with certain exceptions, such as plastic bags used for meat, fish, and vegetables). 

But how bad of a problem could it be? 

This past November, Plastic-Free Easton volunteers surveyed Easton’s grocery stores to study shopping bagging preferences. Volunteers tallied the number of shopping carts over a two-hour period at each store and whether the groceries were in reusable shopping bags, disposable plastic bags, or unbagged.  

The results surprised even them: shoppers overwhelmingly pack their goods in plastic when the bags are free. Of the almost 500 observed shoppers at Easton’s Acme, Giant, Harris Teeter, and Weis Market, an astonishing number–84.5%–went with plastic bags. They also surveyed Target and Walmart, which sell both groceries and other department store items. They found that approximately 87% of the 531 shoppers observed over a one-hour period opted for free plastic, about 11% for reusable, with the remainder not using bags.

You might argue that convenience is important. Besides being free, aren’t many of us conscientiously doing our part by returning the bags to the recycling bins at the store?  

Well, the group took a look at that as well. “Is it possible,” asked Arnold, “that we don’t understand the real price of a ‘free’ plastic bag? Are stores really going to give it away for free? So you have to understand that there is a hidden cost there.”

As for returning them—you might be surprised to learn that as per a July 2019 article in the National Geographic resource library, only 9% of plastic bags were actually recycled! Not only do they jam up the recycling machines, but if a dirty bag is disposed of in the bin, the whole container is corrupted and must be trashed (at taxpayers’ expense). But here’s one more important thing to note: The Town of Easton does not accept plastic bags for recycling. 

There was one last piece of investigation that Plastic-Free Easton’s did that you need to know about, and it’s eye-opening. When they observed shoppers at the local Aldi for their bagging preference, they found drastically different results. Unlike the other major grocery chains, Aldi shoppers have to bring their bags or boxes to carry away groceries since Aldi charges for its bags. Out of 221 shoppers, about half did not bag their merchandise, 37% used reusable bags, and 13.6% used disposable paper bags.  Not one shopper used single-use plastic bags.

For Tama, this was not a surprise, and it became even more of a motivator. This past summer, while vacationing in Rehoboth Beach and shopping at the local grocery stores, she found Delaware had passed a law banning single-use plastic bags. “I wondered,” she said, “if Delaware can pass this type of law, why can’t all of Maryland?” Well, it’s not for lack of trying. “If you include this year (2022 Session), it will be the third year we’ve been waiting for a State bill,” said Tama.  The 2020 legislation stalled in the state senate,” said Arnold.  There is talk about reintroducing the bill this year, but that is unlikely from what we understand.”

The fact that it isn’t happening faster is surprising. Maryland creates approximately 12 million tons of solid waste, with almost 13% coming from plastics (including plastic bags.) The pandemic hasn’t helped. With the rise of carry out and deliveries from restaurants and grocery stores, there has been an increase of 30% in plastic waste in 2020. So what’s the delay?

Opponents argue that the bill would create a paper bag shortage and increase prices for small businesses, who would be forced to pass on the costs to their customers. Supporters challenge that customers are paying for plastic bags now, and paper bags would similarly become integrated into the price of doing business.  In fact, they argue, places that have implemented bans have seen a significant increase in people bringing their own reusable bags, and these people have adjusted without any seemingly harmful effect.

So while disagreements continue, it’s up to individual communities to pass their own laws. Bans have gone into effect in certain parts of Maryland, including Montgomery County, Howard County, Baltimore City, Takoma Park, Chestertown, and Westminster. Other counties and towns currently have initiatives under consideration. Plastic-Free Easton wants to make sure Easton is part of this group.

For guidance, Tama reached out to Martha Ainsworth, Prince George’s Chair of the Sierra Club’s Zero Waste Committee, a couple of months ago. “I shared our ideas of what we could do in Easton, and she advised us on what would work, what wouldn’t, and what other people were doing across the state. She even sent me a sample bill that we would like to get a local council member to sponsor and introduce.” 

Recently, the group has met with individual council members, pitching their ideas and getting feedback. “We need to know,” said Arnold, “what sort of information they would need to support the single-use ban.” Added Ford, “they’ve been very insightful and have given our committee suggestions of ways to go and things to do to make sure that we’re prepared. I think that they’ve been supportive to us in that way.”  

But don’t expect this group just to sit back and wait for a sponsor. Come spring, the group will be back at the farmers market collecting more signatures. They even plan on asking some of the local foundations to buy reusable bags that the group could give out at the local grocery stores for free. Said Ford, “I hope that this grassroots effort promotes awareness throughout our community so that all people, whether they’re youth or elders, are aware that this is a problem.”

Arnold agrees, “There’s no simple solution to Easton’s plastic bag problem. But taking our reusable bags into the grocery store would be a good place to start.”

It all makes a lot of sense. Guess I’ll have to figure out another way to dispose of my kitty litter.

For more information about Plastic-Free Easton, go here.  

Val Cavalheri is a recent transplant to the Eastern Shore, having lived in Northern Virginia for the past 20 years. She’s been a writer, editor and professional photographer for various publications, including the Washington Post.

Maryland’s environmental chief vowed to make immediate reforms at his agency as he faced sharp questions Jan. 18 from state lawmakers frustrated with its performance over the past year.

Members of the Senate’s Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee pressed Ben Grumbles for answers on the state’s shortage of drinking-water system inspectors; the lack of penalties handed down to chicken farms that run afoul of pollution controls; the agency’s failure last fall to warn of a sewage spill before more than two dozen people fell ill from eating contaminated oysters; and two separate instances in which major pollution violations went unnoticed until watchdog groups gathered evidence and reported their findings to the state.

Democratic Sen. Paul Pinsky, the committee’s chair, said the revelations suggest a pattern of disregard for the public’s wellbeing on par with the federal Food and Drug Administration’s oversight failures that contributed to the nationwide opioid epidemic.

“One of the issues that comes out consistently is it wasn’t an issue of the FDA controlling Big Pharma but Big Pharma controlling the FDA,” Pinsky said. In Maryland’s case, he said he wants to make sure that the Department of the Environment is “controlling the sector that they are supposed to protect rather than that sector controlling them.”

Grumbles pledged to push forward several changes, including hiring dozens of new staff members in the Water Supply Program and significantly increasing the number of inspections conducted at chicken farms this year.

The MDE secretary also took personal blame for the agency’s belated order in November to shut down shellfish harvesting in St. George Creek in St. Mary’s County after a sewage spill. The local water and sewer utility followed protocol by immediately reporting the overflow of more than 25,000 gallons of diluted but untreated sewage, officials say. But the MDE failed to formally act on the information for more than two weeks.

In the meantime, a St. Mary’s oyster farm had unwittingly harvested more than 7,000 oysters from its leased bottom in the creek and sold them. As a result, 27 people in Virginia reported getting sick after eating the raw oysters.

“I accept responsibility for a breakdown, the failure in communication,” Grumbles said. “Our enforcement people were aware of and noted the spill, the infrastructure leakage problem. It didn’t get properly communicated to the hard-working folks who run our Shellfish Sanitation Program.”

The agency has since taken steps to make sure that a similar mistake doesn’t happen again, he added.

A common refrain during the nearly two-hour hearing was that the agency’s enforcement divisions are understaffed and overworked.

A consultant for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducted an analysis of the MDE’s workload, finding that its drinking water inspectors conduct approximately 240 inspections per year, nearly four times as many as their peers typically do in other states. At the time of the analysis, there were 27 vacancies out of a staff of 71 full-time positions.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh contended that the lack of staff has contributed to another problem: a decline in the number of certified operators at the state’s 3,300 public drinking water suppliers. The analysis, conducted by the business consulting firm CADMUS, found that 72% of water systems had a certified operator in 2020, down from 84% in 2015.

The state was supposed to submit its response — which the EPA called a “resource investment plan” — in October. But Frosh said it has failed to do so, leaving the public in the dark about what measures the state agency intends to take. Grumbles later told the committee that the MDE has turned in “phase one” of the plan and is currently working on the second.

The situation is so dire that the state risks being ceding responsibility of its drinking water program to the federal government and losing the $21 million in federal contributions toward running the program, CADMUS warned.

“This is an embarrassment to the state,” Sen. Clarence Lam, a Howard County Democrat, said. “It’s like the department is barreling down the highway at full speed with four flat tires.”

Grumbles said that much of the decrease in staffing was caused by a “silver tsunami” of retirements during the COVID-19 lockdown period. The MDE has since brought the program’s staffing level up to 68 people, with the goal of reaching 102 in the coming months. CADMUS recommended 126.

A similar staffing shortage plagues the agency’s oversight of the Eastern Shore’s chicken industry, critics say. An Environmental Integrity Project report last year found that state inspectors are visiting fewer farms than they once did, falling from an average of 218 a year from 2013 through 2017 to 134 per year from 2018 through 2020, with that decrease predating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Grumbles promised to add two inspectors to the current staff of three and increase the number of inspections by 50%, drawing praise from the group that authored the report.

“This is good news for the Chesapeake Bay that MDE will be increasing its inspection staff and has pledged to significantly boost its inspections of the poultry industry,” said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project. Schaeffer, the former director of civil enforcement at EPA, also testified during the hearing. “However, more needs to be done,” he added, “including more routine penalties for chronic violations of pollution control laws to protect waterways and public health.”

One of the ways that MDE will accomplish the increase in inspections will be to conduct “video inspections,” Grumbles said. Sen. Cheryl Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat, questioned whether such a system would work, saying that farmers could simply “show what they want to show” with their cameras. Grumbles responded that MDE staff would direct farmers in real time on what to shoot.

Senators also sought explanations for why environmental groups — and not MDE inspectors — brought to light recent pollution violations at a pair of Baltimore sewage treatment plants and at a chicken-rendering facility in Dorchester County. “We have enough humility to recognize that we’re not the only eyes and ears in the field,” Grumbles told the committee.

But his detailed defense of his agency’s recent actions rang hollow with at least one lawmaker.

“At the end of the day when we pass laws, it’s the law-enforcement entity whose responsibility it is to enforce those laws,” said Sen. Mary Washington, a Baltimore City Democrat. “We continue to hear these statements that seem to suggest that you have intention, that you’re making best efforts and maybe you accept responsibility. But it’s only after getting caught.”

by Jeremy Cox