STEVENSVILLE, MD (June 16, 2008) – Maryland’s Assistant Secretary of the Environment Stephen Pattison, Queen Anne’s County Chief of Water and Sewer Alan Quimby, and others marked another success in Governor Martin O’Malley’s environmental agenda today by dedicating the upgraded Kent Narrows/Stevensville/Grasonville (a.k.a. Kent Island) Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The ceremony included a ribbon cutting, followed by a brief tour of the facility. The expansion of the Kent Island WWTP will allow Queen Anne’s county to meet the nutrient loading caps under Maryland’s Tributary Strategy Statewide Implementation Plan, while supporting growth within Priority Funding Areas.

“This project is an important step in protecting one of our greatest assets, the Chesapeake Bay, while allowing us to add new residents and commercial entities,” said Assistant Secretary Pattison. “MDE is please to provide funding through the Bay Restoration Program to upgrade the Kent Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.”

The fund is the most innovative environmental legislation in the past two decades, with the goal to bring the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater treatment plant effluent to state-of-the-art levels. By early 2010 when all 66 major plants are upgraded with use of the fund, impact will be a 7.5 million pound annual reduction in nitrogen and a 260 thousand pound annual reduction in phosphorus.

“I applaud the efforts that both the Maryland Department of the Environment and Governor O’Malley have made to upgrade all the state’s wastewater plants and improve the quality of water in the Chesapeake Bay,” said Chief of Water and Sewer Alan Quimby. “This upgrade will make a significant contribution to reducing pollution in the Chesapeake Bay.”

The $33.45 million project involved upgrading the existing output of 2.835 million gallons per day (mgd) at the Kent Island Wastewater Treatment Plant to 3.0 mgd. It also installed Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) and Enhanced Nutrient Removal (ENR) technology, allowing the plant to remove a yearly average of 3 milligrams of nitrogen per liter of water, which reduces the yearly load by 83%. The plant will also remove .3 milligrams of phosphorous per liter, reducing the yearly load of phosphorous by 93%. This dramatically reduces the level of nitrogen and phosphorous being discharged into the Chesapeake.

The expansion of the treatment plant is consistent with the local Comprehensive Plan and the approved Water & Sewerage Plan for the local jurisdiction, and has received growth consistency approval from the Maryland Department of Planning.

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