Panel named to study septic pollution
Continuing his push to limit development on septic systems, Gov. Martin O'Malley named a 28-member task force to study the environmental and health impacts of on-site sewage disposal.
The task force is to be headed by Del. Maggie McIntosh, chair of the House Environmental Matters Committee. McIntosh, a Baltimore city Democrat, tabled the governor's push for septic limits during this year's legislative session and called for more study of the issue. The panel's vice chair is Jon Laria, a Baltimore development lawyer who is head of the state growth commission.
A press release from the governor's office calls the task force broad-based, with representatives of business, agriculture, science, environmental advocacy and government. A quick scan of its members, though, suggests the panel is stacked at least modestly in favor of the governor's position that septic-based development needs to be limited.
O'Malley contends curbs on septic-based growth are needed to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay and to curb suburban sprawl.
"This effort is not about stopping growth" O'Malley said in a statement. "It is about stemming the tide of major housing developments built on septic systems to generate clean water and protect our environment and public health."
State planners project that septic-based development will account for 26 percent of all the new households built in the state over the next 25 years, but produce 76 percent of all the new nitrogen pollution getting into ground water and streams feeding into the bay. Critics also say building with septics aggravates suburban sprawl, fragmenting farmland and forests and increasing the costs to government of providing roads, schools and other services.
Developers, farmers and some local officials, though, complained that the legislation supported by the governor would stunt growth in rural and some suburban areas of the state. The bill O'Malley backed would have barred septic systems for any "major" subdvisions with more than five homes, and would have required more costly and less polluting septic systems be used on individual homes or smaller developments.
Andy Ratner, spokesman for the state Department of Planning, acknowledged that there had been "great differences of opinion" about septic systems during the legislative session this year. He said the O'Malley administration hopes the task force can tackle those differences and "try to satisfy them as much as you can."
McIntosh had indicated during the session that she favored limits on septic-based development, but was concerned about their impact on rural economies. She also wanted to see that there was adequate capacity in the sewage systems of small towns and cities to handle the growth that might be shifted their way by tightening curbs on septics. The state's fund for upgrading wastewater treatment plants is due to run short of cash in the next year or two.
The governor's April executive order creating the task force directs it to study this issue as well. The panel has until Dec. 1 to reports its findings and recommendations to the governor and to legislative leaders.
(Septic system to serve new home being built in northern Baltimore County. 2011 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)
Comments
Septic tanks for any use other than remote rural homes--of which Maryland has hardly any--are profoundly bad for the environment. While they do negligible damage if properly spaced and properly maintained, both common sense about the amount of land needed for a good septic field and the discipline to clean them well and often enough are pretty scarce.
If a town wants growth, they need to investigate a small sewer system that can be maintained by the town.
Posted by: Nancy Thompson | June 21, 2011 9:56 PM
When microbes in the soil eat sewage, they consume oxygen in the soil, and prevent oxygen from getting into the ground water. They create large oxygen free zones that need to be accounted for, not just the area needed to consume the waste. Water that percolates through these areas draw minerals and nutrients from the serface and often end up in rivers and streams, causing algae blooms at some point, and killing fish. It is not hard to saturate a large area of a watershed with septic fields in even moderately populated areas.
Posted by: Walter | June 28, 2011 12:41 PM