County officials have yet to make decision for funding feasibility study on effluent

By Greg Ellison

(March 12, 2020) In light of the proposal to irrigate the Ocean Pines Golf Course with treated wastewater effluent, the Ocean Pines Association and Worcester County officials will hold a town hall on March 12 to review the concept and answer questions from the community.

The town hall will begin at 5 p.m. in the Assateague Room of the Ocean Pines Community Center.

Facilitating the meeting will be OPA General Manager John Viola, OPA Director of Golf Operations John Malinowski, OPA Golf Course Superintendent Andre Jordan and Assistant Superintendent Justin Hartshorne.

Representing Worcester County will be commissioners Chip Bertino and Jim Bunting, along with Assistant Public Works Director John Ross.

The idea of revamping irrigation practices at the golf course came into focus after the Ocean Pines Service Area Water & Wastewater Advisory Board received county approval in January to look deeper into using highly treated effluent.

Bertino said funding for the feasibility study would have to be derived from area water service user fees.

“It would come actually from the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Service Area, which is an enterprise fund,” he said. “It wouldn’t come out of the county’s general fund.”

Bertino explained that water and wastewater service areas in Worcester County are operated as enterprise funds that include established financial benchmarks.

“The enterprise funds are basically run as a business, so they have to at least break even,” he said.

Bertino said the commissioners have yet to approve funding the feasibility study.

“That will be something that’s discussed during the budget process,” he said. “We don’t know what the costs are going to be for doing this.”

Following an April 14 budget work session, the commissioners have a budget hearing set for May 5, with two subsequent work sessions scheduled on May 12 and May 19. The Worcester County fiscal 2021 operating budget is slated for final approval in early June with an effective date of July 1.

Bertino said although discussions about converting spray irrigation practices in Ocean Pines have yet to hit stride at the county level, based on precedent at nearby golf courses associated costs to upgrade infrastructure would likely be funded by the Ocean Pines Water and Wastewater Service Area.

“As we’ve done with Mystic Harbour [Wastewater Treatment Plant] and Eagle’s Landing [Golf Course], the service area paid for the upgrades to the golf course to be able to do that spray irrigation,” he said.

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

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.

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.

“It saved them a lot of money in their water bills as a result of the way that treatment plant is operated,” he said. “People may take it for granted, but I think it’s the only one in the state that has such a high ranking that we don’t have to pay to bay restoration fee.”

Bertino said with firm costs yet to be ascertained at the county level, the matter is far from decided.

“I haven’t seen any numbers,” he said. “We’ll take a look at it but at this point I have no idea whether or not we’re going to move forward with the study, let alone with the project.”