In obtaining the County’s approval to permit the huge Lakeside subdivision to begin, the Town of Trappe, and apparently others “in the know,” withheld important information about serious problems with the operation of the existing Trappe wastewater treatment plant from the County Council, the Talbot Planning Commission, the Public Works Advisory Board and the public.
As a matter of process, withholding critical information should be unacceptable. As a matter of substance, the status of that plant is important because the first 120 homes—maybe twice that number, really—are supposed to be hooked up to that decades-old plant that is failing every month to meet even its out-of-date discharge limits.
What we know for certain is this: the latest MDE plant inspection (2/14/19) found the plant to be in “Significant Category 1 Non-Compliance.” Moreover, for twenty-seven of the thirty months from April of 2018 through October of 2020—during the very period that Lakeside was being reviewed by the Planning Commission, the Public Works Advisory Board, the County Council, and (in theory) the public—the Maryland Department of Environment (“MDE”) reported ZERO nutrient load in the effluent discharged by that plant, which is impossible. Nevertheless, MDE was reporting “No Violation Identified.” Maybe no reports were filed, I don’t know. (But that itself would be a violation of regulations.) It wasn’t until November 2020, four months after the County Council adopted Resolution 281 (the act needed for Lakeside to proceed), that ZEROs stopped being reported.
How can it be that no one knew this? How could the Council have approved of the developer hooking up more homes to the Trappe plant in this circumstance?
And putting this all into context: every single month of 2021 the Trappe plant has failed to meet nutrient limits by wide margins—like 219% in February, 244% in March!
The data above are all from the authoritative EPA website called “Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)” showing monthly data from mandatory discharge monitoring reports (“DMRs”) from Maryland’s wastewater treatment plants, including the existing Trappe plant. (https://echo.epa.gov/effluent-charts#MD0020486; click on “Download All Data.”)
That the Town of Trappe and others “in the know” revealed none of this to the County Council, the Planning Commission, the Public Works Advisory Board (“PWAB”) and the public is confirmed by a careful review of the publicly available transcripts, video, and minutes of three meetings of the PWAB, four meetings of the Planning Commission, and two meetings of the County Council (one of which was the public hearing), all of which took place in 2020.
Discussion of the status of the Trappe plant did come up in those discussions, and what the reviewers received, purposefully or otherwise, was a good deal of dissembling, non-responses, omissions, obfuscation, and in one or two instances, answers that seem to be misleading. Check the transcripts. For example:
- When Planning Commissioners asked about the obvious implications of MDE’s recent refusal to permit connection of eleven homes on Howell Point Road to the Trappe plant, the answer was confusing and ambiguous.
- When Commissioner Ghezzi asked the Talbot County engineer straight up, “Could the current treatment plant even handle this [connecting 120 homes]?”, a meandering discussion ensued. The then County Attorney (who is now “of counsel” at the Applicant’s law firm) said, “But is the system operating up to the MDE standards? I can’t answer that right now. They collect monitoring reports, I guess, each month that has the data for what sort of output the facility is doing. However, that is an existing facility that is approved by MDE…”, and so Ms. Ghezzi’s question was never directly answered.
- Immediately prior to the County Council’s final vote on Resolution 281 (which gave the project its go-ahead), Ms. Price and Mr. Leasher were pressing the Applicant and the County Engineer about the status of operations at the Trappe plant, when President Pack ended discussion with this statement: “I don’t believe that the wastewater treatment plant is substandard. I believe it is discharging according to its MDE permit. The levels are within its permitted MDE applications. So I wouldn’t say that the plant is substandard at all….I don’t think the plant is currently facing any type of violation at this time.”
In every instance the Applicant’s attorney, the County Engineer, and the County Attorney were in the room and said nothing about the plant’s most recent inspection status or the curious fact that discharge monitoring reports were showing ZERO nutrient discharge….an impossibility. I do not know who else knew what at the time, but the Town of Trappe—who partnered with the developer as “the Applicant”—surely knew the truth. The Applicant’s attorney seems always well prepared, and it would be reasonable to expect him to know the facts too, and perhaps the County’s staff concerned with wastewater issues, even though they do not have authority over that plant. But those are just assumptions.
The good news is that last week I wrote directly to all of the County authorities and provided detailed information on these matters. Call me naïve, but I believe this will be appropriately investigated and responsible people will get to the bottom of it. But immediate rescission of Resolution 281 is necessary and appropriate while this important issue is assessed.
Finally, I would like to point out that this issue is completely independent of the initial reason I called for rescission of Resolution 281 ”without prejudice:” that after getting the greenlight from the County to start Lakeside, the developer made significant changes to the plans for the new wastewater treatment plant and its spray irrigation. Those changes seem to be serious, and appear to be the basis for Judge Kehoe remanding the discharge permit back to MDE for a new review and public hearing. The County Council still refuses to abide by its own Rules of Procedure and let me present a petition calling for rescission of 281. The Acting County Attorney’s answer to my complaint in the Circuit Court of Talbot County is not due till later this month.
The withholding of important information by an Applicant—including one of our own municipalities, no less– is a compelling reason for rescission of Resolution 281, separate from the post- approval plan changes. Anyone wishing to express support for, or join in, Petition 20-01, which is very much alive, should simply send a short email to that effect to [email protected].
Dan Watson is the former chair of Bipartisan Coalition For New Council Leadership and has lived in Talbot County for the last twenty-five years.
Liz Fisher says
Thank you for your research and efforts on this, Dan. I already support Petition 20-01, but will send another message to Susan Moran to remark on your latest findings.
Michael Davis says
Dan, Thank you for all the effort you’ve put into this. I’ve signed the petition and will continue to support this.
Michael H. Divins says
Rescission is a necessity.
Permissionshould be withheld until a solution can be found and again presented to the County for a rehearing on the entire project.
Rebecca Ellison says
This is only the tip of the iceberg. And it’s all in the public record. Thank you Dan. Let the unraveling proceed.
Douglas Firth says
Thanks for all your detailed research Dan. This is a very important issue facing not just the town of Trappe but in other surrounding areas close by. The people at our governing level need to put the brakes on this program to study and fix these health and waste water issues which are now public record. This is not new news to many of us.
Is this gigantic development really good for Talbot County?
I think not.
jan bohn says
This just gets curiouser and curiouser! Appreciate all the ‘digging’ you’ve been doing. Takes me back to my days in Hudson County, New Jersey!
Eva M. Smorzaniuk, M.D. says
Thank you Dan for your continued efforts in uncovering the data, which gets more alarming with each reveal! It sounds like both the Trappe township leaders and Talbot County commissioners need to put the brakes on this project until they scrutinize the impact. I will continue to support your efforts.
Dirck Bartlett says
Thanks Dan for bringing this to light. If the Town of Trappe knew what was going on about their wastewater plant and they knowlingly refused to submit reports in the hope that they could facilitate development of the Lakeside community, this should facilitate the firing or removal of office of those who knew of this. If the attorney for the developer was involved, he or she should be censured or fired as well. The public should be outraged and this makes a mockery of the public hearing process.
The County Council, who sits as a Board of Health, needs to launch an investigation through the Attorney Generals Office and find out who is responsible. In the meantime, without haste, the County Council needs to re-cind their approval of 281. Pete Lesher is the only Council Member who voted against 281. If the other four do not re-consider 281, they are not looking out for the public interest or public health.
Meg Olmert says
I couldn’t agree more!
A recind-to-reassess 281 is just the start. If public health malpractice is uncovered, there will be more petitions to sign!
Those who would try and self serve at the public’s expense need to know, Talbot’s residents are watching and in the good fight.
Staying informed and active is the only way to
Douglas Firth says
Well stated Dirck!
Time to come out of retirement??
Dirck Bartlett says
I am trying to talk to the county council to have them put on their Board Of Health hats and see what an abuse of the public, this apparent concealment of the truth shows. There needs to be a real investigation of the Town of Trappe and these developers who are abusing the public and hiding this serious filth and pollution from the public. If the voters cannot count on the council to protect them from this sort of abuse, you have to ask the fundamental question of why they are in public service.
Elizabeth Hott says
Thank you, Dan, for all the time and effort you have put into getting information out to all residents of Talbot County regarding the Lakeside housing development. The size is so out of proportion to not only the County but, even more so, to the town of Trappe and amid so many unanswered questions about the apparently failing wastewater plant the County Council must rescind 281.
Annie Petri says
An additional layer to this is that the malfunctioning plant isn’t even paid for. This situation has left the small number of the town of Trappe residents with remarkably high water bills. Most close to $200 a month. The billing structure makes no sense and is partially not even based on usage.
That in itself has been worthy of investigation for a long time. The Council says that they have no hand it in, only the town representatives. But how is there no governance over them and their actions?
I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs of this but I do know it’s not right. Trappe could use some investigation and some help well before it adds its first 120 friends.
John Farwell says
If the Howell Point Rd homes can’t be added, how is the town allowing the 20 homes behind the Coffee Trappe to be built?