By Greg Ellison

Public Works heads believe it can be done for greens

(March 19, 2020) Protecting water systems and reducing nutrient loads in the St. Martin River were primary motivators presented by Worcester County officials last week for a proposal to irrigate the Ocean Pines Golf Course with treated wastewater effluent.

Worcester Public Works Director John Tustin and Assistant Public Works Director John Ross headed a town hall question-and-answer session last Thursday in the Assateague Room of the Ocean Pines Community Center.

Tustin said the county took over water and wastewater operations after the Worcester County Sanitary Commission was disbanded in November 1993.

“The Worcester County Sanitary Commission … was a quasi-governmental agency not connected to the Worcester County Commissioners,” he said.

OPA General Manager John Viola said the potential to convert irrigation practices at the golf course to use highly treated effluent was still in the exploratory stages.

“Highly treated effluent” is defined as water meeting current Maryland Department of the Environment Bay Restoration standards.

Ross said the concept would eliminate spraying roughly 200,000 gallons daily of ground water on the golf course during the summer.

“We’re talking about taking the treated water from the [Ocean Pines] Wastewater Treatment Plant and rather than putting it out in the [St. Martin] River, talking about using to irrigate the golf course,” he said.

Ross said treated effluent from the Ocean Pines facility has continually outpaced state environmental benchmarks.

In 2005, MDE started a Bay Restoration Fund, or flush fee, financed through a monthly charge of $2.50 for users of publicly owned wastewater treatment plants. The fee was increased to $5 per month in 2012.

The Ocean Pines plant has consistently earned annual Bay Restoration Fund waivers by testing below maximum effluent concentrations of 3 mg/l of total nitrogen and 0.3 mg/l total phosphorous.

Ross said in many instances the Ocean Pines effluent tests as low as 2 mg/l of total nitrogen.

“You’re discharging better water than what was created from the program,” he said.

Worcester County officials estimate that MDE tax exemptions of roughly $5 million have been earned over the last 14 years by the Ocean Pines Wastewater Treatment Plant for Ocean Pines rate payers due to exceptionally low levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in tested effluent.

Ross said the treated effluent is used for spray irrigation purposes at nearly three-dozen facilities across the state, nine of which are golf courses with three located in Worcester County, including Glen Riddle, Eagle’s Landing and Lighthouse Sound.

“This is not something new, this is commonly done throughout the state [and] throughout the country for that matter,” he said.

Ross said going the irrigation route would reduce demand on the five water supply wells serve Ocean Pines.

“We pull anywhere from one to three million gallons out of those wells on any given day,” he said.

Giving the golf greens a good watering boosts that figure by about 200,000 gallons a day, Ross said.

Ross said the water supply in Ocean Pines is one of five qualified as a Maryland Department of the Environment’s Water Management Strategy Area due to potential salt-water intrusion.

“They monitor withdraws out of [the] wells in order to make sure that we don’t begin to pull salt water in,” he said.

Ross said the pines water system is unique in the fact that ground-sourced water is PH adjusted and chlorinated without extensive infrastructure.

“We do not have to filter it [and] we do not have to treat it with chemicals,” he said. “We are able to meet all the requirements of the Safe Water Drinking Act without building a water treatment plant,” he said.

The water system in Ocean Pines is well worth protecting, Ross said.

“You’ll regret it if you ever have to go into a different aquifer as far as water quality and ease of producing drinkable water,” he said.

Additional benefits of converting to spraying effluent on the golf course are realized in adjacent watersheds.

“The second reason to potentially do this is to reduce discharges to the St. Martin River,” he said. “Yes, we produce really clean water, less than 3 mg/l of total nitrogen but that’s still not zero.”

Pines resident

Worcester Assistant Public Works Director John Ross summarized a proposal to irrigate the Ocean Pines Golf Course with treated wastewater effluent, while, from left, OPA General Manager John Viola and Worcester Public Works Director John Tustin also assisting with the presentation during a town hall meeting on March 12.

said the proposal would provide a direct financial benefit to the OPA and golf course by replacing a half-century old irrigation system.

“There’s a way we can replace aging infrastructure at a reasonable rate because the county knows what they’re doing,” he said.

Ross said the commissioners would need to approve funding to explore the matter in depth.

“The first step of anything is to do a feasibility study,” he said.

Ross said any changes would be at least three years in the making.

“It’s just a concept that we believe is worth looking at for the long-term benefit of Ocean Pines,” he said.

Ross also noted any associated costs to upgrade infrastructure would likely be funded by the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Service Area and serve a dual purpose.

“We’re going to try and protect the aquifer on the water supply side and we’re going to try to reduce the nutrients going into the bay on the discharge side,” he said.