The county council heard public comment from two fronts Tuesday night on the rescission of Resolution 281.
Resolution 308, introduced by Talbot County Council Vice President Pete Lesher, would rescind Res. 281, which amended the county’s sewer plan to include the Lakeside/Trappe East project.
A public hearing on Res. 308 began Tuesday night and will continue on
The council also heard the presentation of Petition 21-1 from Dan Watson, representing several hundred Talbot County residents petitioning the county council to rescind Res. 281.
Watson had filed the petition on May 7 and since then has been asking the council to follow its rules of procedure allowing him to present the petition with witnesses.
When the hearing for Res. 308 began, County Attorney Patrick Thomas said Watson would go first, presenting the petition, since it had led to the introduction of the resolution.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, Watson said he was informed by email on Friday that the petition presentation was set for the Oct. 12 council meeting and noted it was the council that decided to schedule the presentation for the same night as the hearing on Res. 308.
He noted that 349 people had signed the petition thus far and if each person “took their allotted three minutes for public comment” on Res. 308 that would be nearly 18 hours of comment. The council’s rules for presenting a petition have”no limitation on my time to present a wealth of important, new information, but I assure you, I won’t be anywhere near that,” Watson said.
Watson outlined five reasons why the petitioners believe Res. 281 must be rescinded:
- Res. 281 connects Lakeside to the town’s existing plant, which he argued is inappropriate since a) La Trappe Creek is already polluted, b) data shows e. coli and extremely high nitrogen levels, c) the current sewer plant and system have operating problems, “including terrible infiltration,” and d) hooking up more homes to the existing plant would be “outrageous.
- Res. 281 assumes the new plant to be built at Lakeside/Trappe East will work properly as designed.
- Res. 281 is flawed because it reclassified properties erroneously.
- Res. 281 misrepresented the change being made to the sewer property classifications.
- Res. 281 was predicated on “gross misunderstandings.”
Witnesses questioned by Watson included Choptank Riverkeeper Matt Pluta, who detailed water quality testing on La Trappe Creek and an unnamed creek that feeds into it and into which the Trappe plant discharges its treated wastewater; Gene Lopez, a kayaker who said photographs he had taken of the feeder creek showed “all sorts of discharge discoloration, and something brownish, that’s floating on the water;” and Dr. Jim Smullen, a wastewater professional for four decades who said no additional homes should be connected to the existing plant until the town fixes the water and sewer system’s inflow and infiltration problem.
After a lengthy presentation, Watson and the council agreed to set another date for the presentation to continue and public comment began on Res. 308.
Calvin Yowell urged the parties to consider a new suggestion, sending the town’s wastewater to the Lakeside/Trappe East plant to be treated and then sent back for discharge into the unnamed creek.
Other speakers included Phil “Chip” Councell, Talbot planning commission president; William Anderson of the county’s public works advisory board; Lisa Ghezzi, county planning commissioner; and Tom Alspach of the Talbot Preservation Alliance.
The public hearing on Res. 308 also will be continued at a future date.
Julie Susman says
I “attended” this marathon meeting from home, watching it on the County’s live video feed. Because it went on for many hours, a number of the voters who had signed up to speak, weren’t able to stay until they could have a turn, but the fact that they did sign up to speak, indicates how much the Council’s constituents care about this issue.
I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear one person speak in support of allowing the failing wastewater treatment plant as is to be hooked up to any of the planned new dwellings in the Lakeside project.
I am wondering who on the Council actually believes that ignoring the current below standard wastewater treatment plant regardless of any new homes, not to mention using it to receive waste from hundreds of new homes is acceptable.
It is the County Council’s fiduciary responsibility to be the voice of the families they represent – including their own! Inaction will result in increasing pollution of the waterways we live near, use for recreation and to earn a living. Increased pollution will kill off fish, crabs, oysters, clams, and the wildlife and fellow residents who depend on them!
The solution is simple:The Council needs to require the developer to bring the Trappe wastewater treatment plant up to ENR standards and THEN, begin to add new homes. I hope our elected representatives care enough about Talbot’s citizens to do the right thing.
John W. Pettit says
I watched much of the Council hearing Tuesday evening. It seems obvious that Trappe currently has a pollution problem that is not under control, so to approve the proposed Trappe development without resolving the current problem and ensuring that the development will not aggravate it would be irresponsible if not illegal.
Gene Lopez says
I’d like to clarify something mentioned in Mr. Griep’s excellent account of the meeting. I did not take the photos I discussed at the meeting. I was presenting photos taken by Dan Watson, and shown in Talbot Spy several weeks ago. As a person who has kayaked frequently in LaTrappe Creek, but never knew about the Trappe Wastewater Treatment’s use of the Creek as part of its sewage treatment facility, I was astounded by what his photos showed when I saw them in the Talbot Spy. I wanted to make sure that Dan’s photos got into the record before the County Council, and it was in that role as a kayaker that I showed the Council Dan’s photos. Thanks for the opportunity to make that clear. Gene Lopez
Dirck Bartlett says
The County Council sits in part as a Board of Health. Knowing what we know about this existing plant, it astounds me that only one Council Person voted against allowing the Lakeside development to hook up and use the lousy plant. Only Pete Lesher had the common sense to vote no.
This is, frankly pathetic. They sure had their Board of Health Hats on during the pandemic but protecting our most polluted river from more unnecessary pollution was apparently not important enough to them.
I am extremely worried about what is coming down the pike if this group cannot look at these facts and make reasonable decisions like this.
Recently they assumed responsibility for the spray irrigation sewer system on a 60 lot development (The Preserve) which could not manage its spray system (overseen by MDE!) and then they approve a system 50 times larger! Nuts!