Updated: 2/20/2024

Trappe East Holdings Business Trust (Trappe East) plans to build a mixed-use community consisting of commercial uses, over 2,500 residential dwellings, and a 30-acre man-made lake in Talbot County, Maryland called Lakeside at Trappe. The property currently consists of row crop farmland near Miles Creek and the Choptank River. The developer plans to connect the residences and commercial uses to a wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) that will be constructed on-site. The treated wastewater, or effluent, will be disposed through groundwater discharge by way of land application using spray irrigation. In a spray irrigation system, the effluent is sprayed on to crop land and the pollutants are supposed to be integrated in the crops or retained in the soil. However, studies show that some of the pollutants will seep through the ground to the groundwater where they will eventually make their way to surface waters (rivers, creeks, and wetlands). The Lower Choptank River is already impaired by sediments, nutrients, and fecal coliform.

The Maryland Department of the Environment (“MDE”) issued a state discharge permit for the WWTF on December 22, 2020. The permit allows the WWTF to discharge up to 540,000 gallons of effluent per day when the Lakeside project is complete. This makes the WWTF the largest facility of its kind in the State of Maryland. When issuing the permit, MDE did not acknowledge the impacts of this connection between groundwater discharges to surface waters and how this connection implicates the Chesapeake Bay Blueprint. This sets a dangerous precedent when permitting future on-site facilities such as this.

In February 2021 CBF, along with local residents, appealed the decision to issue the state discharge permit by filing a Petition for Review with the Talbot County Circuit Court. A separate, but similar Petition was filed by ShoreRivers.  CBF’s legal challenge was stayed as the permit was remanded back to MDE for further consideration.  After MDE held a public hearing and additional comments were submitted, on October 27, 2022, a revised groundwater discharge permit for the facility was issued. CBF filed an amended petition for judicial review in December 2023 because our concerns with the discharges of pollutants from the facility remained. On August 10, 2023, a hearing was held in the Circuit Court and on August 29th the Court issued a decision upholding the permit issued by MDE.

CBF appealed the Circuit Court’s decision to the Appellate Court of Maryland arguing that the revised permit is legally deficient and did not guarantee zero net discharge of nutrient pollution. Nor did it account for the discharge of pollutants to the nearby waterbodies in accordance with federal and state law.  

Oral arguments were held in the Appellate Court of Maryland on September 11th. On December 23, 2024, the Court issued an Opinion affirming the decision of the Circuit Court and upholding the permit issued by MDE.  The Appellate Court essentially deferred to MDE’s discretion in authorizing the permit.

CBF will continue to monitor discharge permits throughout the watershed to ensure compliance with federal and state laws. 

CBF was represented in this matter by the Vice President of Litigation, Paul Smail.