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Anne Arundel declares moratorium on sewer allocations after capacity revision
Summary
County executive and public works officials said a change in how downstream capacity is measured forced a pause on new sewer allocations affecting the area around BWI Airport; administration says an 8-month diversion-study and multiyear fixes aim to reduce the pause.
County Executive Stuart Pitman told the Anne Arundel County Council on March 10 that the county has declared a moratorium on new sewer allocations affecting the Baltimore City service area that includes parts of the corridor north and west of BWI Airport.
Pitman said the pause, effective March 2, 2026, followed a recent technical review showing the countys previously assumed downstream capacity had been overstated. "We were always going under the assumption for years ... we could send 10.9 million gallons a day to this system. And now that is down to 4.3 million gallons a day," Pitman said, calling the change "pretty drastic" and the moratorium "necessary" to avoid environmental overflows.
Why it matters: dozens of developing projects along the northern corridor, including transit-oriented housing and commercial work, rely on new allocations of wastewater capacity. Officials said projects that already hold formal allocations are protected, but pipeline and pending applications may be delayed until mitigation is in place.
Karen Henry, director of the Department of Public Works, gave a technical…
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