For years, Charles County has planted trees to help meet its stormwater obligations. Now it wants credit for the ones that are already standing.
On Oct. 6 the Charles County Commissioners approved a memorandum of understanding with the Resilience Authority of Charles County to run a new program that places easements on forest land so the county can earn credit toward its MS4 stormwater permit. The same afternoon, commissioners approved a separate sewer agreement in Waldorf under which a developer builds extra capacity and the county pays up front, then collects the money back from future connections.
Paying to keep forest as forest
Planning staff told commissioners the county spent several years urging the Maryland Department of the Environment to let counties earn permit credit for preserving existing forest. MDE approved the program, and staff said the first easements have been recorded in Howard County. Charles had already put money in its budget in anticipation, and the MOU lets the Resilience Authority help identify eligible properties, handle due-diligence paperwork, place the land under easement and secure the credit from MDE. Staff compared it to an existing arrangement with the Southern Maryland Resource Conservation and Development Board, which processes paperwork for a county land preservation program.
Resilience Authority Executive Director Stacy Schaefer said Charles would be only the second county in the state to use MDE’s program. She said the Authority will keep planting trees where needed, but preserving forest in the first place is “an incredibly efficient and effective way” to create long-term sustainability. Schaefer previously spent years leading land conservation at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
According to MDE’s August 2024 FAQ, Phase I MS4 jurisdictions earn 0.46 equivalent impervious acres of credit for each acre of forest conserved. The land must be natural, more than 50% forest, under demonstrated development pressure and outside the 100-year floodplain, and the easement must be “demonstrably permanent,” with triennial inspections. It cannot overlap state programs such as Program Open Space or Rural Legacy, which is why the county describes it as a supplement to existing conservation tools. The commissioners did not discuss acreage targets or the amount budgeted, and the vote carried with no opposition.
A sewer upgrade in Waldorf
In the second item, the Director of Planning and Growth Management and a county attorney asked commissioners to approve a sewer infrastructure improvement agreement with the developer of three projects that must upgrade sewer infrastructure in the Waldorf area. Staff said the deal benefits both sides. The developer is preparing easements that will let the county build a pipeline later and take a high-maintenance sewer pump station offline, though the county is not ready to build that project yet.
The core of the agreement is that the county will reimburse the developer for building capacity beyond what its projects need. Staff said the county can recoup 100% of that cost through a system expansion fee: when future users connect to the upgraded system, they pay a pro rata share, and the county is repaid. Staff called that approach common where improvements create capacity others use. The agreement passed by voice vote with no opposition. The meeting did not state the dollar amount, the developer’s name, the three project names or the pump station’s location.
What to watch
The first properties the Resilience Authority brings forward and how many acres the county hopes to protect; the dollar amount and fee schedule in the sewer agreement; and how the county accounts for any gap between reimbursement and fees collected. The commissioners next meet Oct. 20 and 21.
