Marylanders developing commercial properties on septic systems may have the amount of sewage they can discharge reduced and their property's building rights could be diminished if a state initiative gets passed.
The Carroll County Board of Commissioners met with representatives from the Carroll County Health Department Tuesday to discuss proposed septic regulations on future commercial properties. Edwin Singer, the environmental health director at the health department, expressed concern over the new regulations being proposed by the Maryland Department of the Environment.
The requirement would increase the size of septic systems by 1½ to 2 times the current requirement for commercial sites with sewage flows of less than 5,000 gallons per day. If a commercial site can now dispose of 1,000 gallons of sewage per day, the new requirements could limit a future business to between 500 to 750 gallons per day, Singer said.
Since the systems have to be that much larger, Singer said they take up that much more land. To reduce sewage flow, a developer would either have to reduce the number or the size of the businesses on a property.
For example, Singer said, a developer planning to build a strip mall on a septic system would be required to install an on-site septic system that is 1½ to 2 times as large as the current regulations allow. However, in many cases a site will not be big enough to install a larger system required under the new proposal, so the property owner who may have planned eight stores may only be able to build four.
The state's proposal, published in the Dec. 13 edition of the Maryland Register, states that "The proposed action has no economic impact [and] ... minimal or no economic impact on small businesses."
The commissioners and the health department both disagree.
Commissioner Doug Howard, R-District 5, said the regulations would absolutely have an impact on economic development in Carroll and throughout the state.
"The ability to develop those properties, both for the property owner and for the corresponding tax revenue, is certainty affected by that," Howard said.
MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said in an email to the Carroll County Times that this type of regulation expresses allowable discharges on the basis of "loading rates," which is the ratio derived from the number of gallons of sewage expected to be treated divided by the size, in square feet, of the septic system.
The existing regulation allows for a higher loading rate for commercial properties compared to residential properties, Apperson wrote. This rate is so much higher that the state knows of no jurisdiction that uses it in its approval process. For that reason, MDE believes that a change in the allowable loading rate for commercial businesses will have minimal economic impact on businesses, he wrote.
"During the development of this proposed regulation, local health departments and business groups including the Maryland Homebuilders Association, were provided descriptions of the proposed change, and economic impact was not raised as a significant issue," Apperson wrote. "We have now received a comment from the Carroll County Health Department indicating a concern. We will consider this comment as we move toward a final decision on this proposed regulation."
Commissioner Richard Rothschild, R-District 4, referred to the proposed regulations as a "continued war on rural Maryland."
The commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to send a letter to the MDE opposing the regulations. Staff was directed to develop information quantifying how business would be impacted by the proposed requirement.
Singer said there are a couple of reasons why the health department feels the proposed changes are unnecessary. The first is that MDE has not demonstrated there is a problem with the functioning of systems that were designed and installed under the current regulations, Singer said.
The second reason, Singer said, is that MDE just changed these regulations to require new businesses and home development not being built on public systems to utilize "best available technology" for septic systems for nitrogen removal on all systems for new construction. The regulation became effective Jan. 1.
The BAT systems, he said, effectively improve the quality of effluent being discharged, and the soils will be more capable of receiving a higher amount of wastewater with this improved effluent quality, Singer said.
"I don't really think it's justified," Singer said.
