Volume 1, Number 5

August 2005

eMDE is a monthly publication of the Maryland Department of the Environment. It covers articles on current environmental issues and events in the state. Additional monthly features include: MDE public meetings and hearings schedule, enforcement and compliance notes, and permitting activity.

State Leaders Break Ground on Upgrades to Salisbury, Crisfield Plants

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Salisbury and Crisfield joined the ranks of communities across the state that are doing their part in the Chesapeake Bay revitalization process.

On Aug. 17, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) Secretary Kendl P. Philbrick, key Cabinet Secretaries, city, county and state elected officials joined in a ceremony for the new wastewater treatment facility in Salisbury, the sixth municipal plant upgrade and expansion project to be initiated since adoption of the landmark Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, a cornerstone of the Governor’s environmental agenda. The $81.6 million plant upgrade will include enhanced nutrient reduction (ENR) technology to achieve total nitrogen removal to a yearly average of 3 to 4 milligrams per liter, an 82 percent reduction, and phosphorus to 0.3 milligrams per liter, a 70 percent reduction over current levels. The new facility is expected to be fully operational by September 2008.

Excess nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, lead to degraded water quality, which negatively impact the ecology of the Bay and its tributaries.

On July 29, MDE Secretary Philbrick was joined by Lt. Governor Michael S. Steele, other elected officials and watermen in a ceremony to upgrade Crisfield’s wastewater treatment facility. The $10.6 million upgrade will also include ENR technology to achieve a goal of removing total nitrogen to a goal of 3 milligrams per liter (mg/l) and total phosphorus to 0.3 mg/l. As a result of the work, roughly 42,600 pounds of nitrogen and 8,200 pounds of phosphorus will be removed from the effluent before it is discharged into the Chesapeake Bay. The construction upgrade is anticipated to be complete by the end of 2006.

The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund, among the most innovative environmental legislation in the past two decades, is used to upgrade wastewater treatment plants to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from effluent to state-of-the-art levels. 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.