Federation Blog

The environmental community continues to work with legislators to prevent a weakening of the Maryland Department of the Environment's (MDE) stormwater regulations slated to go into effect in May 2010. The Federation, along with others, is working to arrange a meeting between the environmental community, the development community, and regulators to see if some of the concerns with the bill that have been raised can be handled administratively, rather than with new laws. We appreciate everyone who contacted their legislators and asked them to stand firm on the regulations. The message definitely got across. We'll keep you posted as things progress.

In the past couple of weeks, bills to expand the uses of Bay Restoration Fund (BRF) dollars (SB 20/HB 313) were introduced. These bills would allow the septic portion of the BRF to be used to subsidize the conversion of communities with failing septic systems to sewer, in some instances. Given that there are a number of such communities on the South River and in Anne Arundel County, this has been a priority for the Federation for the past 2 years. Our hope is that we can get it passed this session. Calls to legislators in support of these bills are always appreciated.

Finally, as you may have read in the paper, the Watershed Protection & Restoration Act (SB 686/ HB999), which require local jurisdictions implement a fee on existing impervious surfaces to create a dedicated funding source for stormwater retrofits, is a priority for the environmental community and the Federation. In Anne Arundel County alone, there is estimated to be a $1 billion backlog of stormwater restoration repairs that are currently needed. A dedicated source of funds to address these issues on a continuing basis is the only way we can hope to make progress on this restoration work which is so critical to improving water quality. The bills will be dropped in the House and Senate next week and we will alert you as soon as they are.