PRINCE FREDERICK — Calvert County’s first update to its water and sewer plan since 2014 is headed to the county commissioners, but only after the Planning Commission told the county to add what several members said the draft leaves out: sewage spills in Solomons and Chesapeake Beach, a shrinking aquifer, rising seas, saltwater intrusion and contaminants like PFAS and arsenic.
The commission voted 7-0 on Oct. 21 to find the Water and Sewer Comprehensive Plan December 2025 update consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan and to recommend adoption by the Board of County Commissioners, on the condition that the plan add sections on each of those issues. Minutes earlier, a motion to declare the draft inconsistent and send it back to staff failed 2-5.
For residents, the plan matters more than its dry title suggests. It sets where public water and sewer can go, and the state looks to it when deciding which projects qualify for money. The county’s public works director told commissioners that a delay would hurt the county’s ability to get funding from the Maryland Department of the Environment, and said MDE denied a funding request this past year for sewer service in the Highlands community, which residents had petitioned for, because the project was not yet in an approved plan.
A 2014 plan catching up
The update replaces the 2014 plan and is meant to align it with the Calvert County Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2019, according to the Department of Public Works and its consultant. State law requires every Maryland county to keep such a plan current. The draft updates system capacity figures for water supply, treatment and storage and for wastewater collection and treatment, revises the water and sewer category maps and folds in projects from the county’s capital improvement program.
Staff first brought the draft to the commission in January. Six agencies then commented: MDE, the county’s Planning Commission, Planning and Zoning and Health Department, the Beaches Water Cooperative and Anne Arundel County’s planning and zoning office. The Oct. 21 public hearing brought the revised draft back to the commission. Public Works said any fiscal impact of the update would be minimal and absorbed in existing operating budgets. No one from the public spoke at the hearing.
What commissioners said is missing
The pushback started at the southern end of the county. One commissioner said Solomons had two sewage overflows in the past year, sending a lot of sewage into the river, and that the draft does not explain what happened or how the county will fix it. The same commissioner said the smell from the Chesapeake Beach treatment plant can be noticed outside homes in the neighborhood, and that it is becoming common.
Another commissioner noted that the draft’s sections on each major wastewater plant leave out sewage overflows at Chesapeake Beach, which he said have doubled in the past decade, as well as ongoing problems at other plants. He asked that the plan describe recent problems at every facility so future capital budgets can account for them.
That commissioner raised a string of other gaps:
- Aquifers: Charts added at the commission’s request in January show water levels at three locations but cover only a single year. He asked for 10 to 20 years of data, noting that Anne Arundel, Charles and Prince George’s counties draw on the same aquifers and that some Calvert residents have already had to drill deeper wells at their own expense.
- Sea level rise: State projections show serious flooding in parts of the county that rely on septic systems.
- PFAS: The plan does not mention what he called PFAS problems in the Naval Research Lab area.
- Arsenic: The plan’s arsenic discussion relies on Maryland Geological Survey data from 2003.
- Saltwater: He said saltwater intrusion near Solomons should be noted as the aquifer draws down.
On climate, county staff said a new state requirement that took effect Oct. 1 applies to the comprehensive plan and geographic plans such as town center master plans, but not to functional plans like this one.
What the county says it is doing
The public works director said the Solomons overflow he recalled, about a year and a half ago at a pump station across from a church, happened when one of two pumps failed and an electrical surge destroyed the backup. He said many failures come down to aging infrastructure, much of it installed in the early to mid-1980s, and that limited money forces the department to choose which projects to fund first.
He said the area under the bridge that one commissioner described is the system’s headworks, where most of Solomons’ sewage drains before it is pumped to the treatment plant, and that a lagoon there is meant to hold overflow during high flows and high tides. The county has lined older sewer pipes and rehabilitated manholes in Solomons to keep out storm and tide water and is looking at watertight manhole covers in low-lying areas, he said. Crews have also inspected the force main that carries Solomons sewage to the treatment plant.
He questioned how the plan could address saltwater, saying the county finds pipe corrosion in places like Prince Frederick that have no saltwater intrusion and that he could not say it was caused by saltwater rather than age and mixed materials. A Public Works representative said the county is also starting a separate water and sewer master plan update that will review facility capacity and problems and propose improvements for the capital program.
Why the commission did not send it back
John Mattingly, the commission’s legal counsel, told the board its role was limited to two findings: whether the plan is consistent with the comprehensive plan, and whether to recommend it. A finding of inconsistency would not kill the plan, he said, but Public Works would have to redo the 60-day review and could bring it back in about three months.
After the inconsistency motion failed 2-5, the commission approved the conditional recommendation unanimously. Public Works said it will send its responses to the commenting agencies before the plan goes to the Board of County Commissioners for adoption.
The hearing came the same night the commission moved a countywide data center ban toward public hearings and heard a pitch for a Huntingtown historic district.
