The Maryland State Builders Association is taking a stand against the bill being pushed by the O'Malley administration that would limit future development in the state on septic systems. Not exactly man bites dog, but they're joining rural lawmakers and Realtors against any significant change in where or how growth occurs.
They're calling the administration-backed bill, titled "The Sustainable Growth and Agricultural Preservation Act of 2011," the "Anti-Growth and State Control Over Local Land Use Act". They argue that the bill, which has enthusiastic backing from environmental groups, would lead to "significantly heightened unemployment and massive damage to local tax bases."
"This bill is being justified as a measure to address Water Quality issues related to septic systems, when in fact, the focus of the bill is restriction of land use in rural areas of Maryland as an indirect means to force Smart Growth development,'' writes D. Stephen Seawright, the president of the builders group. "By restricting the types and number of septic systems that can be used in rural areas, this measure provides the Maryland Department of Environment and Maryland Department of Planning with veto power over local land use decisions."
They question the state's projections that 145,000 more homes could be built on septic systems over the next 20 years, and contend that the impact of septic systems on bay water quality is overblown.
"Over each of the past two years roughly 9,000 permits per year have been issued statewide for construction of single family homes," Seawright says, "with the State estimating that 20% of those permits are issued for homes in 'unplanned sewer service areas.' This means the 20 year projection is approximately 36,000 homes, not 145,000."
Of course, home construction has declined precipitously since the recession began. The state's projection is based on the rate of home building before the market crashed. But the builders' president argues that even if the pace of building recovers to double what it is now, that would produce only half the number of homes on septics that the state projects.
The builders group also argues that not all of the nitrogen in household waste gets out of septic drain fields and into the bay. State officials estimate that anywhere from 30 to 80 percent does make it to surface waters, depending on soil type, the depth of the water table and the distance to water. State officials also say that a household using a conventional septic system releases up to 10 times as much nitrogen as one hooked up to state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant.
The builders' group contends further that it's unnecessary to limit septic systems statewide, since municipal and county governments have to comply with the bay "pollution diet" that the Environmental Protection Agency imposed recently. Local officials will have to figure out how to reduce nitrogen from sewage, storm-water runoff and septics in their communities to clean up the bay while also allowing for future population growth and development.
Those local cleanup plans, known bureaucratically as "Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans (who comes up with these names?)," are due in September. But that timetable and indeed the future of the EPA's "pollution diet" are a little up in the air at the moment, because the House voted over the weekend to block EPA from spending any money for the rest of this budget year (until Oct. 1) on its bay pollution reduction blueprint. The "diet" (with another incredibly bureaucratic name: "total maximum daily load") has been under fire from agriculture and development groups, who oppose a stronger federal regulatory role to end the dilatory bay cleanup strategies of the states (and federal government) over the past three decades.
(New home being built in northern Baltimore County on septic system. 2011 Baltimore Sun photo by Kim Hairston)