Maryland's Nitrogen-Reducing Septic Upgrades Prove Popular

Maryland's Bay Restoration Fund funds wastewater treatment plant upgrades, cover crops, and septic upgrades to reduce nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay and Maryland waterways.

From April though June of 2009, Maryland Department of the Environment, MDE, received over 1,200 applications for the program, a ten-fold increase over the same period last year.

MDE Secretary Shari Wilson said, "This is a credit to Maryland residents, who want to protect our drinking water, the Chesapeake Bay, and our local rivers and streams, that septic upgrades have become so popular, so quickly. As a result, nitrogen loads will be reduced by 7,800 pounds of nitrogen each year through the nearly 1,300 septic systems upgraded to date."

Smith Island, Maryland's only inhabited off-shore island in the Chesapeake Bay (Photo by Steve Bruno)

"Septic system upgrades are a key part of reaching Maryland's new, ambitious two-year Chesapeake Bay milestones that more than double our state's efforts to reduce nitrogen and clean up the Bay," Wilson said.

The average septic system delivers about 30 pounds of nitrogen to the groundwater each year, MDE data shows. Of the estimated 420,000 septic systems in Maryland, 52,000 septic systems are within 1,000 feet of tidal waters of the state, known as the Critical Area.

About 80 percent of the nitrogen from a septic system in the Critical Area will reach surface waters.

The state agency estimates that an upgraded, enhanced nutrient removal septic system cuts a system's nitrogen load in half.

Due to strong interest in the septic upgrade program, for upgrades in the 10 Maryland counties that do not operate their own programs, new applications are temporarily being placed on a waiting list.

This does not affect those 13 counties who operate their own upgrade programs, where applicants can contact the county directly to learn if funding is available.

MDE is developing new grant criteria to ensure that funding for septic system upgrades goes first to homeowners with failing systems in the Critical Area and also in other parts of the state.

The new criteria are expected to be in place by October 1, 2008.

Wilson said, "MDE will contact applicants for this program as funds become available. Applicants for funding who have failing systems should be sure to let MDE or their county know, because those systems have the highest priority."

Through the Bay Restoration Fund, a $30 annual fee is collected from each home served by an onsite septic system. The total estimated program income is $12 million per year. Sixty percent of these funds are used for septic system upgrades and 40 percent are used for cover crops.

In 2008, about 4,000 new and replacement septic systems were installed in Maryland, resulting in an increase of 12,000 pounds per year of nitrogen discharge reaching Chesapeake Bay.

MDE estimates that this annual growth is the equivalent of one additional major sewage treatment plant every year with no nutrient removal technology.

To try and keep a lid on septic system pollution, MDE's septic upgrade program annually receives an estimated $8 million in funding, enough to cover about 600-700 septic upgrades per year. An average septic system upgrade, plus five years of maintenance, costs can cost up to $13,000.

Since 2006, the state has awarded $19 million to homeowners and counties for upgrading their septic systems.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.