Lakeside has been in the works for a while. In 2019 a plan to build 2,501 residences in one phase was divided into 4 phases; and in 2020 the Talbot County Council found Lakeside’s plan consistent with both its Comprehensive Plan and Comprehensive Water and Sewer Plan. Resolution 281 passed 4-1. The Planning Commission had voted 3-2 in favor, but the Board of Public Works voted 5-0 against, possibly due to concerns for the development’s size and Trappe’s wastewater treatment capabilities.
The approval of Maryland Department of the Environment’s Permit 19-DP-3460 implies a reasonable expectation that the pollution of Miles Creek and downstream waters will not occur, but concerns remain. Lakeside plans to build 2,501 homes, initially connecting 89 to Trappe’s wastewater treatment plant when La Trappe Creek is already seriously polluted, and then spraying over 500,000 gallons of wastewater per day, an amount twice that of average rainfall, onto to a field alongside Miles Creek.
Section 9-505 of the Environmental Article of the Annotated Code of Maryland defines the County’s role in the planning and operation of wastewater treatment systems: “Each county shall designate an appropriate agency of the county to be responsible for creating a working plan.” Counties are responsible for overseeing the planning, financing, construction, and operation of sewerage systems, and “shall involve the public in these matters.”
Talbot County is responsible for overseeing this plan; but Resolution 281 put Lakeside’s developer and the town of Trappe in charge, and the public waited months for a hearing to address concerns.
MDE conducted a public hearing on October 28. We were reminded that “local government approves the land” for wastewater treatment facilities, but in this case soil is a particularly relevant issue, and soil type, permeability and depth have not been determined. Seasonal issues must also be considered. A spray field shuts down in freezing weather, and the grass selected to soak up nutrients becomes dormant in winter. Will Trappe’s plant be ready and able?
An independent study has also suggested that in some cases outdated data has been used in permit calculations. This permit is several pages long and this is a complex issue, but we might simply wonder why, in a development of over 800 hundred acres, a wastewater spray field would be located alongside a waterway when pollution is a concern.
Lakeside is a development of unprecedented size for our County and the Eastern Shore. Concerned citizens filled the Community Center’s curling rink auditorium to attend and participate in MDE’s public hearing. A Talbot County Council hearing will be scheduled, possibly following MDE’s decision regarding Permit 19-DE-3460.
Carol Voyles
Easton
Comments concerning the approval of this permit may be submitted to MDE until November 5 via email to: [email protected]
Written submissions may be mailed to:
Maryland Department of the Environment
Attn: Mary Dela Onyemaechi, Chief, Groundwater Discharge Permits
1800 Washington Blvd., Suite 455
Baltimore, MD 21230-1708
susan e delean-botkin says
Thank you, Carol. As usual you have laid out the facts in a logical and reasonable fashion.
As a County, we do need to be mindful of the desperate need for affordable housing for our teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, store clerks, and many, many others. But we cannot sacrifice our beautiful and fragile environment.
What I am not seeing on this project is an alternative sewer system that is compatible with our environmental needs that would allow planned, environmentally friendly growth. There are sewage systems other than a field spray program – they are more expensive, but much more environmentally friendly for the LONG TERM.
Hugh (Jock) Beebe says
This is a cearly stated, objectively framed summary of convoluted, overlapping legal issues.
The tone, as I interpret the Voyles letter, is remarkably calm, which is welcome during an epoch of political animosity and polarization.
But, I am still concerned that a calm, reasoned approach to the issues of logarithmic expansion in rural Eastern Shore using denial of critically important environmental issues, is an approach that can confront the aggressive intentions of developers who live elsewhere and care only about their profit.
Reluctantly I would urge that those who see the extraordinary threat of permanent harm from the Lakeside development and its likely damage to humans and Chesapeake Bay as needing the most powerful forces of law and scientific fact, plus the emotion of an aroused public, to be applied with sustained vigor.
L Gill says
Great issues illustrated. Will the taxpayers of Talbot County be forced to pay the bill, when this plan of spraying fields with greywater eventually fails?
The county should force the developer to rebuild the Trappe wastewater treatment plant BEFORE any houses are hooked up to eliminate spraying the fields.
Reduce the size of this development dramatically. The county and the town of Easton can not absorb that many new families.