Olszewski: 'Flush Fee' Increase Needed in State

It was recently announced that the would be the recipient of a $10 million grant to prepare for the engineering and design of an enhanced nutrient removal upgrade.  

The plant, one of the largest in Maryland, processes approximately 180,000 of the nearly 500,000 gallons of daily sewage that gets processed and released into Back River and the Chesapeake Bay. 

For years, we have had the technology to reduce and remove harmful nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus—but have lacked the resources necessary to continue restoring and protecting the health of Back River and the Bay. 

The final cost of such an upgrade will cost upwards of half a billion dollars. Over half of this cost ($265 million) will have to be allocated by the state’s Bay Restoration Fund, which is financed by the so-called “Flush Fee” originally enacted under Governor Ehrlich.  

Federal regulations aimed at the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay are no longer encouraging upgrades at the various state wastewater treatment facilities—they are now requiring them to be upgraded. 

The current status of the original $30 annual “flush fee” has been woefully inadequate to meet the required timelines of the federal government, so legislation was recently enacted to double the fee to pay for upgrades that will reduce nitrogen and phosphorous discharges by 67 percent. 

Such a reduction is important because these nutrients, in high concentration, feed large algae blooms, leading large swaths of no and low oxygen areas of the bay after the algae dies and is consumed by bacteria.  Such a lack of oxygen leads to “dead zones” that severely harm the health of the Bay.    

Had this legislation failed, the requirement to upgrade the would have still been in place and, perhaps more importantly, would have cost users of the Baltimore City water service (nearly every resident of the 6th legislative district and the entire Baltimore Metropolitan area) even more money. 

The failure to enact a change at the state level to fund these upgrades would have forced Baltimore City to charge a non by-passable surcharge on your water bill.  This city fee would have been $37 a year—even more than the approved increase.

I am also proud to report that I was actively involved in sun-setting the fee increase at the state level, so that the $2.50/month increase that has been approved will be eliminated, without any additional legislative action required, once the payments for upgrades to the Back River facility, and others around the state, are complete.    

On this issue, it might have been easier to simply vote against the legislation and blame Baltimore City and the federal governments when water bills went up nearly $40 annually.

Such a simplistic response, however, would have been turning our back on our responsibility to the Chesapeake Bay, and would have been prefaced on the notion that residents would not be able to understand that it would cost them even more had no action been taken. 

Del. John Olszewski Jr. is a Baltimore County Democrat who represents the Sixth District.