2024 Maryland Legislative Session

Nikki Davis

Updated March 19, 2024

Maryland is at a critical point in its work to reduce pollution in the Bay and improve water quality. During the 2024 session, CBF is urging the General Assembly to prioritize restoration efforts that are long-lasting, cost-effective, and targeted to confront climate change, tackle pollution sources, and support the state's growing aquaculture industry.

Creating a Whole Watershed Pilot Program

Senate Bill 969 and its companion bill, House Bill 1165, will create a pilot program to select five impaired watersheds across the state for coordinated, comprehensive improvement and investment. The legislation builds off a successful partnership model in Pennsylvania supported by CBF and designed to rapidly improve waterways included on EPA's impaired waters list. Additionally, the bill creates a licensing program for waterway restoration practitioners. CBF is working in partnership with leaders from the Chesapeake Bay Commission, Chesapeake Conservancy, and other environmental champions, state agencies, and restoration practitioners to develop this legislation, which was chosen as a 2024 legislative priority by the Citizens' Campaign for the Environment, the largest environmentally focused organizing coalition in Maryland.

The Maryland Senate passed SB 969 with important amendments to increase public engagement and forest protection for in-stream restoration projects. The House passed HB 1165 in a way that preserves the Whole Watershed Partnership pilot program, but it did not include the contractors licensing board or guardrails on in-stream restoration.

Closing the Industrial Sludge Loophole

Maryland has, due to incomplete and inconsistent regulation, become a regional dumping ground for what's called “Dissolved Air Flotation” or DAF—the sludge material left over from industrial protein rendering operations. DAF is stored in large open-air tanks and applied to farm fields where it produces odors and insect problems that plague local neighborhoods and communities. Storage tanks and trucks hauling the material can leak and spill, and runoff is delivering polluted industrial waste straight to local streams that feed the Bay. A recent study indicated that Maryland is a net importer of DAF, with more than 50 percent of the material generated regionally being spread on Maryland farms, due to lax tracking and enforcement relative to neighboring jurisdictions.

Maryland's Sludge Influx Over 50% of the region's industrial sludge is applied to Maryland farms.*  1. Industrial sludge is the material that remains after meat and protein products are processed in rendering plants. 2. Rendering plants in Virginia and Delaware ship industrial sludge to Maryland because of the state's lax regulations and oversight. 3. In Maryland, the sludge is then either land applied or held in expansive storage tanks, often without clear knowledge of what's in it. 4. The result is foul smelling odor, swarming insects, and polluted runoff that threatens communities and the Bay.  Farmers in Maryland reported the importation of nearly 30 million gallons of DAF in 2019 and ≥37 million gallons in 2020,  which respectively accounted for 50% and ≥62% of the ~60 million gallons generated regionally.  Source: Final.Report.AWTF_.Assessment.pdf (umd.edu) (page 22) real url: https://extension.umd.edu/extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/2023-10/Summary.AWTF_.Assessment.pdf

Community and environmental impacts caused by the land application and storage of DAF industrial sludge are of increasing concern to property owners and residents on the Eastern Shore and throughout the state. This legislation (House Bill 991/Senate Bill 1074) creates a new permit program within the Department of Agriculture to regulate the hauling, spreading, and storage of this material. It provides for larger penalties for the bad actors who mishandle and overapply DAF, while providing clear, enforceable guidance for farmers who utilize the material responsibly. CBF and our partners at Chesapeake Legal Alliance and ShoreRivers, worked closely with the Department of Agriculture, county governments, and concerned private citizens (many of them farmers themselves) to develop and support these bills.

House Bill 991 successfully passed the Maryland House of Delegates with strong bipartisan support, while Senate Bill 1074 passed the Senate unanimously with additional amendments.

Strengthening Maryland's Living Shoreline Law

In 2008, CBF led the charge to change Maryland state law to require that shoreline stabilization efforts prioritize living shorelines. Living shorelines—shoreline stabilization techniques that include natural gradients and living elements like marshes, oyster reefs, and underwater grasses—connect land to water, stabilize soil, and provide valuable habitat in ways that costly bulkheads do not. Despite the clear directive established by the living shorelines law, a significant number of waivers to this requirement continued to be granted.

House Bill 655 and Senate Bill 546 would build on the landmark 2008 law to clarify a portion of the existing waiver provision related to the replacement of existing hardened shoreline and expand the uses of tidal wetlands impact funds to include grants to replace armored shorelines with living shorelines. CBF is working in partnership with Chesapeake Bay Trust, Maryland Department of the Environment, and Department of Natural Resources on this bill.

Unfortunately, these bills have not yet advanced out of their respective committees. While there is still an opportunity for the legislature to pass them before they adjourn, not passing them before the crossover deadline now means there are additional procedural hurdles to clear.

Defending Clean Water Funding

With reports of declining state revenues and increasing mandatory state expenditures, CBF is gearing up for some difficult budget fights at the state level in the years ahead. The Maryland General Assembly has made preliminary decisions on changes to the governor’s proposed budget and key clean water programs remain funded at expected levels. CBF has worked closely with legislative leaders and state agencies to protect water programs, expand enforcement capacity for our environmental watchdogs, and target state resources into places they can have the greatest impact.

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