I have been following the utter failure of the Trappe lakeside development project for twenty years, trying to talk common sense into the county planners and councilmen without much luck, but having cut this one loose as a series of very bad decisions both by the Talbot county planning commission, chief planners, and the Talbot county council, my goal has been to try to keep it from re-happening. I have spent way too many years and countless hours hoping to encourage new regulations to encourage good character-driven growth and filter out the bad stuff. It’s been an annoying and frustrating ride, that the County can’t see the obvious, they are killing the golden goose. Talbot County will cease to exist as a place worth moving to.
On completion, the Lakeside development, being its 2501 houses, a horrific number of ill-conceived houses, are built and occupied along with the least expensive “proven to fail wastewater “ infrastructure system; I am still in shock that the state approved this wastewater system. Now, we are even more concerned because of new evidence that airborne diseases can be spread much faster by this kind of spray system that aerosolizes wastewater. This is bad stuff.
The obvious point is the system as designed now is not a stable long term system. I am almost certain the developer and his spinners and lawyers will have disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust, about which time the incredibly dangerous wastewater plant installed will fail, the Developer gone.
The town of Trappe will not have the money to fix it ( it can’t even fix its own wastewater problem now). The state and County will need to step in, and the state taxpayers will have to bail out the town and county. I think this is patently unfair and irresponsible to approve a water treatment plant known to fail. It burdens the county taxpayers to bail out the developer, increasing his profit. This is not what responsible governance does. And it’s not even up to date technology.
As much as I hate to concede anything related to this dog-eared development, Two things should happen to be sure this development won’t go down, and the county taxpayers will have to pay. No town or county is that naive and to not demand quality and performance.
Item one:
make sure the developer performance bonds the system for 20-30 years. This will guarantee that the system is of higher quality than it is currently designed. Bonding performance will compel the developer to post and hold money aside to guarantee to payout for a system failure ( this could be many million dollars in the balance). The developer will be required to provide complete, safe, high-level performance of the system (over the 25-year bond term). Typically, States bond the performance of all roads and highway construction, so it’s not unusual to require this as a standard contract. It’s insurance against the developers’ desire to cut and run.
Item two:
Health issues! The proposed external spray irrigation system must be converted to an underground trickle irrigation system where no airborne wastewater will be aerosolized, carried by the wind, and inhaled by the village residents. Germs and pathogens live in sewage, and not all pathogens are killed by wastewater digestion, not the super virile viruses we are experiencing and have experienced in the pandemic. We have since learned that viruses survive wastewater treatment. And new viruses like polio have been detected that are a lot more dangerous than Covid ever was.
Trickle irrigation can operate without the dangerous participation of viruses and pathogens being produced in the above-ground spray system. An added benefit to this system is Large, deeply rooted canopy Trees being planted between the trickle system underground pipes, which will absorb the nitrogen and phosphates, making sure no nitrogen escapes into the fragile Miles Creek watershed. An alternate trickle system is a much safer way to dispose of wastewater; it’s not so weather dependent, won’t require that much storage that’s very Dangerous and expensive to build, and is a lot more eco-friendly, too.
A bigger concern is There’s a very good chance that airborne pathogenic organisms in an above-ground spray system will cause high numbers of serious health risks and spread diseases like COVID-19 and the new strains of polio now emerging in other states. Sewage has been proven to be a large factor in the spread of the last COVID pandemic, and a new strain of polio is showing up in all states in wastewater systems that don’t spray irrigate. It’s likely spray irrigation is more dangerous. It’s only common sense.
Here’s an excerpt from a recent survey that shows airborne pathogens are a serious threat to health. The state of Maryland is likely far behind in its epidemiological study that connects health risks to septic wastewater areas. MDE should put all these systems on health alert hold, but other states have studied it and understand it; New York is one such state. We should demand our own county health to research new data before a clearance is granted.
Impact on the Quality of Life When Living Close to a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant
“Also, the concentration of airborne pathogenic microorganisms in aerosol samples collected around the wastewater treatment plant was investigated. Significant risk for symptoms such as headache, unusual tiredness, and concentration difficulties was recorded and an increased possibility for respiratory and skin diseases was reported. A high rate of the cases being irritable and moody was noticed. Significantly higher gastrointestinal symptoms were also reported among the cases in relation to the controls. The prevalence of pathogenic airborne microorganisms originating from the wastewater treatment plant was reported in high numbers in sampling points close to the wastewater treatment plant.”
Volume 2016 | Article ID 8467023 | https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8467023
A. Vantarakis,1S. Paparrodopoulos,1P. Kokkinos,1G. Vantarakis,1K. Fragou,1and I. Detorakis1
Of course, there are another million reasons the county should be prepared to open their checkbook with big expenses coming in the near future when the new 7500 reduction Lakeside moves in. Traffic, medical, education, etc etc.
Of course, Impact fees should have been demanded as part of the final agreement with the town and county and have not. This is a huge oversight. It’s never too late to consider doing the safe thing, the right thing.
Regarding the vote for or against the upcoming resolution – R338 Amendment One, I agree this amendment is the only one of four to support. The rest are designed to obfuscate and deceive.
Jay Corvan
Trappe
Thomas kicklighter says
Thank you for your efforts Jay. Your presentation is clear, concise and easy to understand. (A rarity) This development should be stopped. All parties involved should be held accountable. Tired of the deceptions.
LeRoy Augustus Wilkison says
A sad situation when the politicians are bought and sold by the developers. They can alleviate that fear by doing the right thing. Moreover, as a resident I fear that the additional costs will be passed on to all of us. The last increase of nearly 50% for the Sanitary District was passed with little or no notice and we have to just “Suck it up”! Time for good government and not more of the same!
Joyce DeLaurentis says
Aside from the obvious economic negative effect to taxpayers to support what will be needed services and improvements over the years, the heath effect of spray irrigation is of huge concern. Since the initial concept of this project was introduced, technologies of changes and improved. Whether on a small scale as currently approved, or on a larger scale if allowed to move forward, better technologies such as underground trickle irrigation with uptake of nitrogen through large tree plantings would be the only intelligent means of disposing of treated wastewater, given the virulent pathogens that are here and that are coming our way.
Thank you, Jay, for this excellent letter and thank you Council for doing the right thing and voting for R338 Amendment One.
K C Dobson says
In regards to item one: Bonds the system for 20-30 yrs.
Per’ the Town of Trappe Council minutes dated 9/6/2032
Infrastructure Bond for First 50 lots.
This is what happens when Town Commisioners are making decisions on things they have no clue on. No experience, No working knowledge.
I think asking the Town of Trappe Commisioners to think about Health issues is really a lost cause. Some have held office for repeated terms and have done nothing for the future of the town. The only accomplishments have been to rename a park. Very sad that things have gotten to this point in regards to the towns water and waste water.
Very funny that the Easton Utilites can come in to the town of Trappe offering cable but can’t seem to get the water and waste water on there list. Why is the town of Easton in Talbot the only town in the county to have a 3rd party over see water and wastewater. The attorney for Trappe is correct there is some unfair treatment going on in the county. This project is bigger than a town council making uneducated decisions.
As a new resident of Trappe living in Lakeside
I think it’s important to know the names of the Commisioners that have voted Yes. Also which ones have quit in the middle of term. This Lack of commitment and education has a trickle affect ,much like the dangerous irrigation talked about in your article. A Safety issue. Thanks for nothing former President Nicholas Newman. Social worker / water expert Tanya Pritchett. Waste Water expert Walter Chase and former Parks and Rec clerk Potter. All of your lack of knowledge in this area has created a division of what is right and wrong with this project. However you seem to all agree on a pay raise and no term limits with proxying voting.
Jan Bohn says
What a sensible letter! All these suggestions make sense and it is hard to find any way to refute them. Let us hope the powers that be read this and take all this into consideration and not discard them as most good ideas seem to be. It appears we’ve all been bamboozled for years. Whose pockets have been lined?