Storm Water

The costly struggle to reduce storm-water pollution in Maryland may be harder than previously thought - because much of what's been done so far to control runoff has been misreported, allowed to deteriorate - or perhaps never even done. That's the upshot of a new survey by Owings Mills environmental consultant Richard Klein. Of 175 storm-water retention ponds, rain gardens and other "best management practices" for capturing runoff that he checked out in Baltimore city and nine of Maryland's largest counties, Klein found that 40 percent of them were either misidentified or impossible to find at all. Klein, founder and head of Community & Environmental Defense Services , relied for his survey on " StormPrint ," a computerized data base of storm-water controls that's been developed by the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Facing federal and state mandates to reduce pollution washing off its streets and alleys, Baltimore city is taking the first step toward imposing a fee on residents or property owners to pay for controlling its tainted storm-water runoff. City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Youngintroduced a resolution Monday night calling for a charter amendment to create a "stormwater utility" for Baltimore. It's slated for a hearing June 12 before the council's judiciary and legislative investigations committee, chaired byCouncilmanJames B. Kraft.

A proposal to levy storm-water fees on many state-owned properties has cleared the House, setting the stage for shrinking a loophole in the year-old law that requires private landowners pay to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay. Delegates voted unanimously for HB508 , which partially removes an exemption for state lands in the law enacted last year mandating that Baltimore city and Maryland's nine largest counties levy a storm-water cleanup fee...

Now that it's clear Harford County is obliged to levy a storm water management fee on just about every home in the county, the time for political diatribes about the state being over-reaching is over. Harford County should make the best of the situation by establishing an efficient and effective storm water management operation with the dual goals of bringing storm water management facilities up to a high standard and putting itself out of business. First, a little background is in order.

The compromise Del. Maggie McIntosh brokered among environmentalists, the O'Malley administration and builders over storm water regulations that are set to go into effect this spring will mean more pollution flowing into the Chesapeake Bay, more erosion, less clean drinking water and assorted other environmental damage. But it could have been much, much worse. Powerful political figures, including Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith Jr., were arguing that the storm water regulations would set back smart growth efforts, promote sprawl and hurt the environment -- an overblown concern but one that created an opening for developers and their allies to gut the new regulations altogether.

To find out if they have been breaking the law for nine years, Hampstead Town Council members will have a closed session with their lawyer after the next public meeting Aug. 9.The town may be breaking a storm water management law, Councilman Wayne Thomas pointed out at the last public meeting July 12.The law states that towns must be responsible for owning and maintaining storm water management systems, such as wet or dry ponds, Mr. Thomas said.The practice in Hampstead has been to require homeowner associations to take the responsibility, he said.

A hearing officer's recommendations that grading and storm water management proposals be given to the Soil Conservation District early in the review process might make it tougher for people to build on environmentally sensitive property in Anne Arundel County.Administrative Hearing Officer Robert C. Wilcox said it "makes sense" for the conservation district to get storm water plans early. Mr. Wilcox, who rules on whether and how much to bend land-use regulations, said he needs the information to decide on variances for sites that merit environmental protection.

Wayne Thomas, president of the Fields Homeowners' Association in Hampstead, said he thinks its members have been wrongly saddled with maintenance costs for storm water management facilities on association property.Mr. Thomas, who is also a member of the Hampstead Town Council, said that under a Hampstead law that was in effect until last March, the developer should have been responsible for the facilities until they could be deeded to the town.The facilities include a pond that contains water all of the time, ponds that hold water only after a storm, drains and undeveloped areas set aside for channeling storm water to the ponds.

A football stadium proposed for Laurel would increase pollution of the adjacent Patuxent River -- not decrease it as the Redskins have claimed, an expert in storm water management testified yesterday.The project also would increase the severity and frequency of flooding and erosion downstream, said Dale A. Lehman, an expert witness called by Citizens Against the Stadium II (CATS II).The National Football League Redskins are seeking Anne Arundel County's permission to build a $160 million, 78,600-seat stadium in an industrial zone east of Laurel.

The county's soil conservation district has asked County Executive Robert R. Neall to withdraw a bill that would cut the independent panel out of the review process for storm-water management waivers.The bill, which rewrites the county's storm-water management regulations, was introduced to the County Council Monday night. A hearing is scheduled Wednesday night.Members of the soil conservation district's five-member Board of Supervisors are upset because the proposed legislation would not allow them to comment to the county's planning office during the subdivision review process and when a developer applies for a waiver to storm-water management regulations.