The Talbot County Council elected last night not to pass a resolution that would have required the Lakeside development in Trappe to meet Enhanced Nutrient Removal standards (ENR) for its first 120 homes to be built for the project. This was amendment #1 to R313 and was rejected in a 3-2 vote. Those units will be connected to the current Trappe water treatment plant while the developer constructs its own treatment facility. At previous meetings, environmental advocates had expressed concerns that the existing Trappe facility may not be able to maintain water quality during this transition period.
With Council Members Callahan, Divilio, and Pack voting against the measure, the vote should allow the Trappe development to receive the last pending permit required for discharges from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and, therefore, may start construction.
The Spy offers this edited version of the Council meeting last night.
This video is approximately 28 minutes in length.
James D. Drayton says
Bad decision, you should have made the developer complete their waste water plant before starting construction of the first home.
Matt LaMotte says
The MDE has become a bureaucratic quagmire under the current administration. They are YEARS behind performing adequate supervision, much less enforcement. I wish the residents of Trappe and their neighbours along the Choptank Rivershed well. They’re going to need it!
David Lloyd says
And, here I was hoping that 2022 would be a better year than 2021. This decision is not only against the best interests of we Talbot County residents, it is also against the law. Period!!
Rebecca Ellison says
Article states – “With Council Members Callahan, Divilio, and Pack voting against the measure, the vote should allow the Trappe development to receive the last pending permit required for discharges from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and, therefore, may start construction.”
This statement is both false and absurd. For one thing, the MDE has not issued a permit for Lakeside’s not-yet-built 550 gallons per day (for 365 days a year) Trappe East spray irrigation facility. And furthermore that applied-for permit continues to be hotly contested and under litigation.
Also, the County Planning Commission (which has the final word in these matters) has ruled against connecting the two wastewater systems. It is being ignored by the Council and the MDE has written to both Council and Planning Commission, wondering what is going on. None of which gives the developer permissions.
The Talbot County Council should not have ‘withdrawn’ Res. 308 which sought to rescind Res. 281 and was the result of a public petition, and was not an initiative of the Council per se. Had they simply voted ‘against’ it, that vote most likely could have been appealed. ‘Withdrawing’ probably allows them to sidestep a possible appeal. Still, no permissions granted by the ‘withdrawal’.
The Planning Commission was right to find the original form of Res. 313 (which acknowledges a connection between the two wastewater systems) in noncompliance with the Comprehensive Plan. Nevertheless the developers have literally created a physical connection between the two systems.
And the Council should not have voted against Amendment 1 of 313 which would have at least required ENR quality outflow for the first 120 Lakeside homes if and when they might actually get connected to Trappe’s existing Bio-Lac wastewater treatment plant as the developer insists is its right.
HOWEVER, none of this connecting of the two systems is permitted by the underlying ‘original documents’ from 18 or so years ago in which Town and developer/owner agreed and guaranteed that the Town and development wastewater systems would stay separate forever.
The developer does NOT have ‘all the permits’ needed … and it does need to be honest in its claims.
Arthur Dent says
So it’s now time for one of the so-called “environmental watchdog” groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation to step up and file litigation seeking an injunction to halt this disaster until the Trappe wastewater facility can be brought into compliance. A threat of irreparable harm is required in order to obtain injunctive relief, and dumping untreated or insufficiently treated sewage into a Bay tributary clearly constitutes irreparable harm. So let’s see if one ore more of the groups who claim to be focused on improving the quality of the Bay will take on the developer and the county.