By Timothy B. Wheeler , tim.wheeler@baltsun.com|April 15, 2009
Few saw it coming, but the General Assembly approved a sleeper environmental bill that will require thousands of homes in Maryland to install more costly nitrogen-removing septic systems to keep the polluting nutrient out of rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.
Bay advocates are hailing the septic legislation's passage as a significant boost for the beleaguered Chesapeake, coming as it did near the end of a legislative session dominated by budget woes.
"It's really, really amazing," said Sen. Michael G. Lenett, a Montgomery County Democrat and the lead sponsor. "For too long we have known exactly what we needed to do to clean up the bay, and yet we have been unwilling to do what's necessary."
Lenett confessed he was surprised by the bill's success in the last days of the legislative session that ended Monday. He figured it was a "long shot" that would require at least a couple of years of debate and tinkering before enough lawmakers would go along with it.
The last time anyone made a serious run at this was a decade ago. Gov. Parris N. Glendening's proposal died in committee amid an outpouring of protest from builders and real estate agents.
The opposition was fierce again this year, as critics complained that the added cost of the enhanced septic systems would hurt an already crippled housing industry and unfairly burden rural homeowners.
The measure was scaled down to require the nitrogen-removing technology only for new systems in the "Critical Area," land near the Chesapeake, its tributaries and coastal bays. It passed the Senate by a single vote, 24-23, then cleared the House over the weekend after a lengthy, emotional debate.
Supporters argued it was high time Maryland did something to curb nutrient pollution from septic systems, a primitive waste treatment technology that allows homes to be built beyond the reach of sewer lines. There are 420,000 septics statewide, with thousands more added every year.
"Septics are really an uncapped, untouched source" of pollution, said Kim Coble, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which lobbied for the bill.
Baywide, septic systems produce only about 5 percent of the nitrogen fouling the water and causing fish-killing dead zones - far less than comes from farm fertilizer or sewage treatment plants. But in bay rivers where homes on septics crowd the waterfront, they can account for 25 percent to 30 percent of the nitrogen pollution, experts say.
