Centerville weighs $55 million wastewater upgrade after MDE approves plant PER; county, farm and funding questions remain

Centerville officials and consultants spent a work session discussing next steps for the town's wastewater treatment plant after the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) approved the project's preliminary engineering report (PER) for an E (enhanced) and R (removal) upgrade, meeting participants said.

The discussion recapped the project's history (planning began in 2017), explained why earlier options stalled, and focused on three linked questions: how much the different discharge options will cost, what funding can cover, and what the county's land-ownership rules mean for a plan that would irrigate farm fields with treated effluent.

Why it matters: the town is near the point when it must decide how much new wastewater capacity to build and how to pay for it. The outcome affects permit renewals, near-term construction, and how much development the town can approve without further investment in sewer capacity.

Key facts and status

- MDE approved Centerville's PER for the plant E&R upgrade on the day of the meeting. Meeting participants emphasized that the approval covers the wastewater plant design only, not any discharge plan for an outfall or spray-irrigation fields.

- Estimated project costs discussed at the meeting included a $55 million figure tied to an outfall-based scenario, and a $2 million line item for an expanded storage lagoon. Participants said the stream outfall and related work exceed $10 million; directional-drilled pipe under the river and contingencies were cited as drivers of that cost.

- The Bay Restoration Fund (state program) will only fund the E&R upgrade portion of the plant; participants said the state program does not cover construction of an outfall or irrigation pipeline/field work. Town representatives are pursuing other state programs and loans as well.

Options under consideration

- Outfall to the Corsica River: This option carries high initial construction costs (participants said the outfall extension and directional drilling are among the more expensive items) but relatively low ongoing maintenance. MDE can limit the town's allowable average daily discharge to the river, which would mean some seasonal or year-round irrigation would still be required depending on permitted flows.

- Spray irrigation to farmland (reuse farm): Town staff and consultants said finding and securing adequate farmland has been difficult. Earlier estimates included roughly $10 million to pipe to and equip one available farm; that farm was reported to be too small. Leasing land has become an option, but Queen Anne's County's water-and-sewer comprehensive plan has language that has been interpreted to require municipal ownership of irrigation acreage, and commissioners previously denied a requested change after neighbor opposition.

- Modular build: staff and consultants discussed a phased approach (for example, an initial 750,000 gallons-per-day plant and later expansions to 1.0 million gpd). A smaller initial plant could delay the most expensive elements of an outfall, but participants cautioned that phasing can increase total cost and that growth assumptions affect whether a smaller initial plant will be adequate.

Permits, timing and outstanding studies

- The PER approval allows the town to move forward with design for the E&R upgrade, but the mixing study and any discharge authorization remain outstanding. Participants said the mixing study and MDE's discharge review must be completed before the town can finalize cost estimates for an outfall scenario.

- Town staff said the renewal cycle for the town's other permits will begin in about 12 to 18 months, which places a time pressure on decisions about long-term discharge.

Funding and next steps

- Participants discussed multiple funding sources the town has pursued or applied for: the Maryland Clean Water Fund (a loan program cited at roughly $15 million in town materials), Bay Restoration Fund support for the E&R upgrade, and other state funding possibilities. Meeting participants said a $2.4 million line for engineering and design tied to the E&R upgrade will be eligible for grant funding under Bay Restoration rules, while outfall and spray-irrigation construction are typically ineligible under that program.

- Staff was asked to assemble an "apples-to-apples" cost comparison that separates discrete project buckets (plant upgrades, outfall engineering and construction, farm acquisition/leasing and pipeline to a farm, and lagoon work). Multiple council members said they want a side-by-side comparison of capital and ongoing operating costs, and to see which funding sources can be applied to each bucket.

- Town staff reported they will petition Queen Anne's County to request a change in the county's water-and-sewer comprehensive plan; staff said a petition window exists through the end of the month and that work to prepare a petition has begun.

Other technical and policy points raised

- MDE engineers told the town that while the plant has sometimes achieved E&R-level effluent, the performance has not been consistently reproducible under current operations. That inconsistency informed the decision to pursue the E&R upgrade.

- Participants discussed operational trade-offs: outfall discharge is low maintenance but constrained by permit limits; irrigation requires land, irrigation infrastructure and winter storage because agricultural soils cannot accept effluent when frozen or when crops are not actively taking up nutrients.

- Town staff and a consultant described a nearby case in Kent County where long-term leases and purchased irrigation acreage were used; participants noted those arrangements varied by county and by the specific easement or lease terms.

What the council directed and the immediate follow-ups

- Staff was asked to prepare a clear cost-comparison memorandum showing best-estimate capital costs and annual operating costs for the principal alternatives (outfall, farm irrigation, and modular phasing) and to document the assumptions behind each estimate.

- Town staff said they will continue grant and funding tracking and that lobbyists and a state consultant (identified in the meeting as MES) have been engaged to pursue additional funding sources.

- The council discussed next milestones: MDE's outstanding mixing study and discharge review, the town's petition to Queen Anne's County on comp-plan language (staff said work on a petition has begun), and grant decisions expected later in the year.

Taper: staff and council members said the PER approval allows design work for the plant to move forward; the council's next decisions will depend on the grant landscape, the mixing-study results and the farm- vs-outfall cost comparison that staff will produce.