St. Mary’s river watershed environment might be going down the drain, but the current “higher authority” is not very keen on long term commitments to save it, according to representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore district.
The frank revelation was made publicly Tuesday during a presentation on a feasibility study of St. Mary’s watershed restoration at the St. Mary’s Board of County Commissioners meeting.
The $1.2 million study is now running in its seventh year, inviting harsh criticism from Commissioner Dan Raley (D, Great Mills) about the snail pace of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project. Half of the costs for the feasibility study were borne directly by St. Mary’s taxpayers.
Steven A. Kopecky, project manager from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore, made the presentation. He was flanked by his boss Amy M. Guise, chief of the civil project development branch, and Sue Veith, environmental planner at the St. Mary’s Land Use and Growth Management Department (LUGM).
“We can recommend a project,” Kopecky later told the Bay Net. “But it’s not our decision. It’s the decision of the Congress and the administration, including the president, if the monies actually come in.”
Kopecky argued the $600,000 that was approved by the Congress did not come in one lump, but was spread over six years, contributing to the inordinate delay of the feasibility study.
At least one of the major polluters of the St. Mary’s watershed was clearly identified by name – the Cobb Island Wastewater Treatment Plant. That sewage plant continues to be a major polluter to the Wicomico River because of the spills, Tom Mattingly (D, Leonardtown) said, pointing out taxpayers dollars would go down the drain if that was not plugged.
“We don’t see much headlines about that,” Mattingly complained, asking what is being done to stop the major polluters upstream.
As four commissioners – President Jack Russell (D, St. George Island), Larry Jarboe (R, Piney Point), Kenny Dement (R, Piney Point) and Mattingly grudgingly passed the vote to grant an additional $100,000 “in kind” support for the long-delayed feasibility study – Raley cast a lone dissenting note.
The study was sanctioned following a House of Representatives resolution more than a decade ago on May 9, 1996 that called upon the Secretary of Army to conduct a comprehensive watershed management study for the Potomac River Estuary from Piscataway Creek to its mouth for water resources improvements in the interest of navigation, flood control, erosion control, environmental restoration, and ecosystem protection.
In the study area were four watersheds – St. Mary’s River, Breton Bay, St. Clement Bay and Wicomico River.
A major challenge to the watersheds has arisen, since the population in the Southern Maryland region is likely to double between 1970 to 2010 due to the growth of the Patuxent Naval Air Station and the blossoming bedroom communities in Charles County.
The study pointed out that development has been centered in the upper St. Mary’s and Breton Bay watersheds causing dramatic increase in the impervious surfaces.
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