Shore Rivers presents restoration updates

CENTREVILLE — As the Centreville wastewater treatment plant plan comes closer to fruition, Annie Richards, Chester Riverkeeper of ShoreRivers, presented Chester River restoration information and sought Centreville Town Council approval June 20 for a pilot program for strengthening efforts.

ShoreRivers, Corsica River Conservancy and Chesapeake Legal Alliance have been engaged in advocacy matters related to Centreville’s ongoing wastewater treatment plant upgrade initiatives and a pilot program for the betterment of restoration efforts, she said.

Richards noted ShoreRiver’s proposal for the betterment of the river was not because of anything the town was doing wrong.

“In fact we think everyone’s doing exactly the right thing, the thing that’s expected by the Maryland Department of the Environment, but we’re asking for something more than what is asked of the state, and we recognize that.”

Richards noted efforts to protect water quality across U.S. waterways kicked off in 1972 as the Clean Water Act established the total maximum daily loads as the parameter limiting the amount of nitrogen phosphorus and sediment that can be discharged into a body of water.

Both the Chesapeake Bay and the Corsica River have specific maximum daily loads, she said.

The Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1983 created an unification between the six watershed states committed to goals and outcomes to restore the Chesapeake Bay by 2025.

Many of those goals were based on leveraging laws and initiatives that were passed during the Clean Water Act, including establishing a permitting program to accomplish the full elimination of pollution discharges from point sources like wastewater treatment plants, according to Richards.

The Corsica Watershed Project is a localized initiative started in 2005 and $20 million has since been spent in partnership between the town, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and grassroots community organizations like the Corsica River Conservancy, she said.

The Corsica River was Maryland’s first targeted watershed for restoration efforts, and efforts continue today including the recent legislative session that passed a restoration bill, Richards said.

“So this legacy of investment in this waterway and the partnerships that have come out of it can still be seen today,” she said.

Centreville’s proposal for a wastewater treatment plant upgrade includes increasing the town’s capacity by 458,000 gallons per day, as well as updating technology to reduce more nutrients and sediment from entering the waterway and surface discharge, she said.

Concerns from ShoreRivers include outdated measurements and restoration efforts not utilizing best available technology, according to Richards.

At more than 20 years old, the maximum daily limits that govern the amount of pollutants that are acceptable to pass into the Corsica River are outdated, she said.

“it doesn’t reflect the current pressures that exist within the watershed, it doesn’t reflect climate data and science,” she said.

Other concerns include while the technology proposed for the wastewater treatment plant meets Maryland’s minimum standards for best available technology, compared to other states including Washington, California and Arizona, “we are lagging behind what best available technology is,” she said.

Another notable reason for necessary updates in technology is that nutrients are no longer the only concern in the water, she said.

PFAS or forever chemicals being found to bioaccumulate as well as the rise of microplastics emerging contaminants is another reason for necessary updates in technology, she said.

“We need to do things to keep them out of our water,” she said.

Pilot programs have received national recognition as a means to conserve and reuse water as well as treat water, and other parts of Maryland, including Anne Arundel County are pursuing pilot programs for newer technologies, she said.

As part of its services, ShoreRivers monitors waterways seven months out of the year, testing for nutrients including nitrogen phosphorus and algae as well as measuring water clarity, salinity and temperatures.

As Chester Riverkeeper, Richards monitors the Chester and all major tributaries and annual testing is used to generate a report card for the overall Chester River.

According to ShoreRiver data, this year the Chester River brought home a C-plus report card, Richards said.

Water quality typically degrades farther up river into smaller bodies of water.

“So when you have a high ratio of land to a small ratio of water, the water is going to have a harder time recovering from the amount of pollutants going into,” she said.

According to the data, Corsica ranked as one of the poorest performing tributaries due to the shallow depths and shapes of the bodies of water.

On a three-year average, the Corsicia’s annual health grade, or water quality index, only met minimum passing water quality standards 34 percent of the time, Richards said.

“It’s very easy for things to accumulate in the Corsica and not be flushed out,” she said.

ShoreRivers’ concerns are focused on the increased input that will be year-round during warm weather months, she said.

Several aspects including nitrogen, phosphorus and chlorophyll are scoring particularly poorly in the Corsica River already without the additional load of wastewater treatment plant discharge year round, according to Richards.

Because of the rural area, non-point source pollution is the largest source of pollution heading into the waterways and urban stormwater runoff from increased construction is the fastest growing type of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, according to Richards.

ShoreRivers and affiliates look to the pilot program as a way to pursue and implement best practices and the town initiating interest was a critical first step to help advocates secure the development of an improved restoration pilot program.

“It would protect and build upon the progress over the last 20 years through restoration efforts by this town and community organizations and maximize environmentally oriented grants and funding sources to offset the cost,” she said.

The pilot program would not change the town’s wastewater permit from MDE nor alter the size of the proposed wastewater treatment plant building, she said.

Restoration funding is something the council has been seeking for three years, said council President Ashley Kaiser, noting the council was aware of funding sources and had received the bulk of its current funding from the Bay Restoration Fund legislatively.

Although offered the opportunity by the legislature, the council aims not to have to dip into the state’s revolving loan fund as to not saddle future generations of this town with additional millions of dollars in debt, she said.

The council reached a consensus to collect more information regarding program costs as well as comments from the public works department and town staff.

“We’d be interested in learning anything that we can,” Kaiser said.