Dear County Council, Planning Commission, Public Works Advisory Board (“PWAB”), and others…
You’ll no doubt be interested to learn that an illegal sewer connection in Trappe occurred right under your noses. You’ll not be surprised that it involves Lakeside. Nor surprised that the illegal connection turns out to have been a linchpin to getting that malign venture under way.
While this additional impropriety just now came to my attention, evidence suggests that Mr. Clarke and others copied here may have known about it literally for years, as did the Town of Trappe, the Lakeside developer, and his agents.
The Lakeside developer, Trappe East Holdings Business Trust (“TEHBT”), had to somehow physically connect Lakeside to the existing Trappe wastewater treatment plant. It arranged to do that by negotiating an easement across a 20-acre parcel that is not part of Lakeside (tax map 55, parcel 51). The Lakeside sewer line was then installed in that easement to a manhole on the east side of Rt 50 that ties to an existing line under the highway. The issue is not with that main line in the easement; it is that the 20-acre parcel was then connected to the line illegally.
You may recall that TIP emailed you about this situation in February 2022 (Exhibit 1) specifically to alert you to the risk that, without some monitoring, that 20-acre parcel could possibly be connected without your knowledge, and that doing so would be illegal. I cited the fact that the 20-acre parcel in question only appeared to be eligible for a connection due to the County’s admittedly erroneous maps attached to Resolution 281. I flagged specifically that that parcel had never been reclassified from “Unprogrammed.” (I also offered a naive comment doubting the worst.)
It now turns out that the developer and the Town of Trappe had indeed arranged for sewerage from that 20-acre parcel to go into new line, disregarding the legally required County approval. The developer’s lawyer, Ryan Showalter, drafted the easement agreement (Exhibit 2). The developer’s engineer, Rauch Inc, designed the sewer connection and handled reviews with MDE and the Town of Trappe (Exhibit 3). The Town of Trappe’s attorney, Lyndsey Ryan, was involved (Exhibit 4)—and her legal fees were paid by the developer. Evidence suggests that Mr. Clarke or someone else in the County also may have been well aware of this illegal connection.
All of this was happening at the same time as the intense and very public dispute over whether the discharge of effluent from the initial 120 Lakeside homes into La Trappe Creek would be a violation of the Comp Plan. Because of those concerns, and even though it knew nothing about the added discharge (from an industrial operation, no less), the Planning Commission rescinded its finding that R281 was consistent with the Comp Plan—which the County Council ignored.
Section 9-511 of the Environment Article of the Maryland Code reads, “Unless they conform to the county plan or revision or amendment of the county plan, the following systems and facilities may not be installed or extended…a sewerage system.” Evidence suggests that the developer’s key agents, Messrs. Showalter and Rauch, the Town of Trappe Attorney Ryan, and someone in the County, knew full well that a sewer connection to improvements on the 20-acre parcel was not in conformity with the Talbot County CWSP and therefore was illegal. But apparently it was a necessary condition for Lakeside to hookup, and so it was arranged.
The 20-acre parcel has always been classified UNPROGRAMMED—and it remains so in the CWSP adopted by the County Council in May and approved by MDE in August. But the developer and Town did illegally connect it to the Trappe plant. Effluent from the industrial operation there is discharging into La Trappe Creek today, as it has for two and a half years.
NOTE: this connection came to TIP’s attention because, in an inspection report that followed a pollution violation at the Trappe plant earlier this year, MDE specifically identified waste coming from that 20-acre parcel. For TIP, the illegal connection put in place just so Lakeside could obtain its mission-critical link to the Trappe plant is the disgrace, whether or not that connection is a source of pollution. The fact that MDE has identified it as a problem only compounds the offense.
A thorough investigation of these matters by a completely independent party is obviously warranted.
Dan Watson
The Talbot Integrity Project
Dick Hardbell says
This is what happens when town council members
with NO expertise in waste water or drinking water are making decision for the town. The attorney that seems to be so money hungry she represents pretty much every local town and or county she get her claw$ into. So much for Ethics.
When a catering chef / council president/ planning zoning/ want to be mayor, is making the decision on what chemicals are going in the drinking water it might be time for the residents to ask. Is this what we really want in charge of drinking and waste water ? Making decision for our families.
Thank you Dan for your insight and the information you have given to the public. The only light I see at the end of this sewer pipe is ,one day Trappe will reach the level of a
town like Easton and have a Utility company that is not made up of uneducated town folks looking for a claim to fame.
Hal De Bona says
Dan, thank you for your continued diligence in informing the public about this entire debacle. This whole thing stinks of “good ole boy” backroom deals being made with and handshake and a wink. The public and their health be damned, because there’s money to be made. Are the citizens of Talbot County so in awe of these so called respected firms that their feet can’t be brought to the fire? Or are they just as complicit? One can only hope that the state of Maryland gets involved, and that some independent media organizations make this the “above the fold” story on a daily basis.
Sickening!!
Dirck Bartlett says
The Taxpayer in Talbot County has been wholly ignored in this process. How can a county parcel be re-zoned and re-purposed for developer use without a single Public Hearing, Public Input or Planning Commission review? Somebody needs to be fired, (if the county staff has looked the other way while this Illegal zoning change was made on htis parcel) or a lawyer needs to be sanctioned (if they knowingly allowed an illegal act to occur).
The Attorney General of Maryland needs to review this case and explain to the County Citizen how this could happen and who is responsible.
dan watson says
For clarification, no rezoning was involved here. The sewer connection is illegal because the Town ignored the County’s exclusive role in designating the “sewer service priority classification” of each parcel. It cannot legally connect if it is not ‘S-1, immediate priority.” The 2-=acre parcel is now and has always been “unprogrammed,” i.e., not slated by the County for hook-up at any time.
As to zoning, the property is in the Town of Trappe, and the municipality decides. There has been no change, tho those 20 acres can be rezoned by the Town to anything it wants, with no County involvement. If nothing is done to correct the illegal disregard for the County’s authority over sewer service priority classifications, all of the sewerage from the parcel will continue to flow into the existing plant, whatever the zoning.
All this just for the record.
DW
Graham Fallon says
Go Dan!