The Maryland Department of the Environment released its decision regarding the Lakeside housing development discharge permit on Friday afternoon. The MDE ruling considerably limits the project to 100,000 gallons of wastewater per day. The developer had asked for 540,000 gallons per day.
The dramatic reduction by the MDE was a result of the agency’s review of recent data and public comments opposed to the original request.
Organizations such as ShoreRivers and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation expressed mixed responses to the MDE’s permit approval.
CBG’s Eastern Shore Director Alan Girard commented that the “MDE should be given credit for significantly scaling back this permit that posed tremendous risk to water quality on the Eastern Shore.” He added however that the CBF, “remain concerned about the potential precedent this could set by allowing a development to bypass Bay cleanup requirements through spray irrigation on farm fields.”
ShoreRivers’ Matt Pluta added, “as we told MDE in our initial comments, spray irrigation is not an adequate means of disposing wastewater without polluting the river. The intention of these permits is for wastewater sprayed onto fields to be absorbed by crops, but much of the nutrients end up percolating into our groundwater instead.”
At the time of this article, the Lakeside project’s attorney, Ryan D. Showalter, has not issued the developer’s reaction to the MDE decision.
The decision can be read here.
Marc Ebersberger says
My first question is who will do the monitoring? My own experience in Howard County is that it is self monitoring and the MDE only checks to set that the monitoring report is prepared but not necessarily that it is accurate. The daily discharge rate is an AVERAGE of 100,000. Is there a maximum limit? The implication is that the ground cover is grass. Is that the best kind? The MDE doesn’t recommend grass for stormwater management. Are there better ground covers? Still a lot of questions.
Eva M. Smorzaniuk MD says
Agree with your apprehensions about who will monitor compliance. I would also recommend reading the statements put out by CBF and Shore Riverkeepers, which essentially state that while 100K is better than 540K, it still means 100,000 gallons a day into the ground water and ultimately into our rivers. Not good!
wayne c johnson says
If you care the CHOPTANK RIVER you should Vote Against it LAKESIDE REQUEST !
Giving LAKESIDE ANYTHING is a OPEN DOOR TO THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE CHOPTANK RIVER !
wayne c johnson says
BEFORE ANY PERMISSION IS APPROVED FOR ANYTHING . YOU ALLOW THE ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS DO A COMPLETE STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF THIS PROJECTS MOVES FORWARD !
Meg Olmert says
This environmental recalibration would NEVER have happened without the evidence compiled and repeatedly presented by ShoreRivers, Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Dan Watson. Whether it is even sufficient is still open for debate. What is NOT open for debate is that some people on the Talbot County Council refused to recognize inconvenient scientific evidence that this project would poison our waters. Chuck Callahan has been outed—and must be voted out of his leadership position before he does irreparable harm to our county.