War on Rural Maryland

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HB-1107 IS PART OF THE WAR ON RURAL MARYLAND

No sooner had the Governor shocked everyone by suggesting that he would be attempting to outlaw all developments of five homes or more from operating on septic systems, than many of the rural legislators began objecting to this ill- conceived idea.

This bill has less to do with cleaning up the Bay than with taking over growth and land use control from the Counties and giving it to the State of Maryland.

Setting aside the arrogant, paternalistic manner with which this idea was thrown out, there are many inconsistencies that will occur if the bill being proposed by Delegate Lafferty, HB-1107, becomes law.  For instance, for the last few decades the State has pushed rural areas to “cluster develop”. Currently a builder is allowed to increase the density of a development as an incentive to “cluster develop” and thus, keep from sprawling out over a much greater area of farmland.  Cluster developments have resulted in the preservation of large contiguous areas of farm land throughout Maryland. If the Governor’s proposal limiting developments to less than 5 homes is accepted then developments of 4 homes or less, all on septic systems, will be spread out over many acres, creating the very urban sprawl that the State has been trying to eliminate for decades.

The Governor’s Office suggests the answer to rural development will be either, hooking up to municipal systems or building “shared facility” systems.  Shared facilities can cost $1 million to build and between $80,000 and $100,000 a year to operate. This means if you have five homes on one of these systems, you would have to pay your share of the $1 million to build it and then pay about $20,000 per year for upkeep.

Under the HB-1107, if I want to build a “major sub-division” I have to build those 5 or more homes where they can be hooked up to municipal water and sewer or I will be required to use a “shared facility”.

In order to get a “shared facility” there has to be a water and sewer category change which is required for 5 or more homes. The category change is preliminarily local and then the State regulatory agencies, Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) & Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) get a final veto power over the category change application.

In addition to the attacks on the sovereignty of the rural counties there are several policy related issues that will result as a product of the passage of this bill.

It has been argued by the Governor, that those who have subdivided their land prior to the effective date of the bill will be “grandfathered”. Thus, those subdivisions will not be prohibited from having more than 5 homes on a subdivision which utilizes well and septic.  Obviously, this will create a stampede of farm owners trying to get their subdivisions registered with the land records in their counties.

The current draft of this bill does not limit the “shared facility” to just “major subdivisions of more than five homes which are in the critical areas but rather it includes all septic systems in the rural areas of the state.

In Garrett County, 75% of septic systems drain into the Mississippi River. Where is the nexus between taking over the land use and growth decisions there and the health of the Bay?

If the State was really serious about the Bay’s health would it have taken over $90 million dollars out of the

Bay Restoration Fund and be planning on taking another $300 million over the next two years? In fact, the Governor is taking the cash and repaying the fund with debt. In a most disingenuous plea, he now wants to double the flush fee, claiming that the fund is broke.

Other unforeseen consequences of this bill proposal are that it will certainly decrease the availability of affordable housing in the rural areas of Maryland. It will force all affordable housing into municipal areas where the Priority Funding Areas (P.F.A.’s) are located.

Another problem with the current draft of the bill is that on p. 13, Line 18, the bill restricts a farmer from subdividing their land more than once, in perpetuity. This will certainly devalue all farmland not already subdivided for future development.

This bill will not achieve any of the goals it states as its motivation. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s own website shows that the estimated Nitrogen going into the Bay from septic systems amounts to just 4%!

On the other hand Municipal and Industrial Wastewater is responsible for 19%. Moving people from septic systems onto the Municipal wastewater systems will just increase the amount of Nitrogen being discharged by those systems.

There is another problem that has occurred where existing “shared facilities” are in place. In Cecil County the community at Courthouse Point found themselves being told they had to operate their shared facility system after the builder found the system too expensive to continue operating. Eventually, the County had to come in and assist the homeowners who had inherited the obligation of running the system and found they could not do so. The County was charging the homeowners on the system about two and a half times as other county residents on county water. The law said that all county citizens had to be charged the same for the purchase of water. Therefore, the County agreed to lower the cost of the water to the Courthouse Point homeowners and at the same time the County raised the cost of all the other citizens water rates to make up for the additional cost of having taken over the “shared facility”.  Imagine if thousands of these “shared facility” locations throughout rural Maryland begin to malfunction, become too expensive for the homeowners to operate or otherwise become the obligation of the jurisdictions in which they are located. As in the case of Cecil County the cost of operation will be passed onto the County and when that burden becomes too large, it is passed onto the taxpayers of the State of Maryland.

The Governor is falsly claiming that the practices outlined in HB-1107 are being utilized in three or four counties in Maryland.  While several counties have initiated various growth control devises none of them have come close to initiating the exteme measures proposed by HB-1107.  When you hear someone from the administration or the environmental groups claim that HB-1107 is already being implemented ask them to quote the page and line of the section they are citing to and where exactly that language appears in the area they are talking about, there are no comparisons that are identical to what they propose in HB-1107.

HB-1107 amounts to an unconstitutional taking of the property rights of millions of Marylanders, and must not be allowed to occur.  Even if the bill were modified to compensate each and every property owner for the land taken by virtue of this land grab, the mechanics of the proposal will not work to achieve the stated goals.  If the bill were to work just as intended it would lead to urban sprawl, and the loss of farmland at a speed never seen before.

We often hear from the Governor’s office how we are “One Maryland”. HB-1107 shows that “One Maryland” what was yours is now ours. There is no room for a separate and independent rural way of life under Governor O’Malley’s environmental tyranny as exposed in HB-1107.

Senator Pipkin: It’s a War on Rural Maryland

From the Washington Post

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley urged lawmakers Thursday to back a $100 million venture capital initiative, spur investment in offshore wind farms and ban the installation of septic systems in major new housing developments.

O’Malley (D) used his fifth State of the State speech to pitch several priorities, some of which have already drawn skeptical questions from lawmakers in both parties and could test his political muscle after a convincing reelection in November.

In a 28-minute address to a joint session of the General Assembly, the governor also acknowledged unpopular budget choices ahead but asked for a continued focus on education, job creation and the environment. . . .

One of the only new initiatives mentioned in the speech was a ban on new septic systems in major housing developments – a “damaging trend,” the governor said, because the systems “by their very design are intended to leak sewage into our bay and water tables.”

O’Malley’s call for banning the systems was met by near silence.

Senate Minority Whip E.J. Pipkin, a Republican who represents rural counties on the Eastern Shore, shook his head at hearing the governor’s suggestion.

“It’s a war on rural Maryland and a war on property rights,” Pipkin said.

Pipkin and other lawmakers from rural parts of Maryland said the proposal shows an insensitivity to those who do not have access to public sewer systems and to farmers who might want to build additional homes on their property for children or other tenants.

. . .

Click here to see full Washington Post article

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