SNOW HILL– Water and wastewater bills in Ocean Pines are expected to increase as the county waits to learn if the area will get a flush fee exemption from the state.
First quarter water and wastewater bills for residents in the Ocean Pines Sanitary Service Area will include a $15 Bay Restoration Fee. The fee, commonly referred to as the flush tax, goes to a dedicated fund used to upgrade publicly owned wastewater treatment plants throughout Maryland with enhanced nutrient removal (ENR) technology.
“The Bay Restoration Fee is a charge the Maryland Department of the Environment assesses to wastewater treatment plants if we have accepted federal or state money and we have not met a nitrogen and phosphorous limit,” Public Works Director Dallas Baker said.
Baker told the Worcester County Commissioners last week that though his department expected the service area to be exempt from the fee, officials from the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) had not yet signed off on the paperwork.
“We submitted that back at the end of January for their concurrence we are exempt and do not have to charge residents,” he said at last week’s meeting. “To date we have not yet heard back from MDE.”
So, MD charges you a fee to flush your toilet on top of the tax you pay to have a municipal service which is simultaneously imperative and detrimental to the health of the bay, and if the subjective metrics arent met somebody in the tax base gets fined, and you can’t opt out of it when it comes to your area, and development needs it to expand into rural areas, and maybe some campaign contributions get made, but it’s definitely not political, it’s entirely environmental, especially when you excuse frequent treatment center overflows, the importation of toxic chemical runoff to Baltimore via Back River, and the poisoning of crop lands through sludge application. It’s really your residential septic tank that is killing the bay, particularly through environmental injustice, but don’t worry the government is here to help and it’s totally not about money or control. Looking at you, wicomico county council.
assawoman bay by op is as bad as the inner harbor! all those ny, nj, pa bmore areas, residents brought their sh_t with them!