OCEAN CITY – Ocean City and Worcester County have reached what resort officials deem a “win-win” agreement to construct a new spray irrigation system at Eagle’s Landing Golf Course that comes along with a list of other benefits.
According to City Manager David Recor, the Mayor and City Council and Worcester County Commissioners have reached an agreement, documented in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), to work together on the construction of new spray irrigation system at Eagle’s Landing Golf Course.
This system will allow the treated wastewater effluent from the new Mystic Harbour Wastewater Treatment Facility to be stored and spray irrigated on golf course lands.
The MOU benefits the city by providing a new irrigation system for Eagles Landing Golf Course and benefits the county by providing an environmentally beneficial means for effluent reuse.
The financial impact for the city in capital improvements, credit for equity and future capital charges and compensation for 40 years of EDU charges is a benefit valued over $2 million.
Public Works Director Hal Adkins held up an email before the public dated Oct. 7, 2009 when discussions between the city and the county first began.
Adkins explained the County Commissioners have a built a new Wastewater Treatment Plant for the residential community of Mystic Harbour in West Ocean City. The old plant had a capacity of 250,000 gallons per day. The new plant has a capacity when completely built out of 600,000 gallons per day. To put it into perspective, Ocean City’s Wastewater Treatment Plant has a capacity for 14 million gallons per day.
“The MOU sets in stone our willingness to cooperate with the County Commissioners on a win-win situation of their effluent reuse for spray irrigation on the golf course property,” Adkins said. “Ocean City will end up with a new irrigation system that I call a wall-to-wall total coverage that is roughly $1.2 million in value at the expense of the Mystic Harbour sewer district, not the Mayor and City Council.”
In addition to several other perks listed in the MOU, the Worcester County Humane Society, which has been dealing with a failing septic system for years, will be connected to central sewer. Additionally, the golf course and golf course maintenance system will be connected to central sewer.
“I look forward to the project and think it is one of the best things that have recently been worked out between the Mayor and City Council of Ocean City and Worcester County Commissioners,” Adkins said.
Maryland Coastal Bays Foundation Executive Director Dave Wilson spoke in favor of the agreement.
“This is an issue that has been on our radar for a long time that was really a failing injection well system at Mystic Harbour, and even though Sinepuxent Bay is in relatively good shape compared to other watersheds, we have seen a decline specifically related to those injection wells,” Wilson said. “This will create an enormous benefit to Sinepuxent Bay and ultimately in Ocean City. The tourism industry relies on clean water to bring dollars to the resort, so this is a really great win-win for everybody.”
Mayor Rick Meehan pointed out currently Ocean City spends $35,000 a year on disposal of the wastewater at the animal shelter, and once the agreement is complete that cost will be decreased to nothing.
Also, the irrigation system that maintains the golf course is about 25 years old and has been a top priority for replacement for years, according to Meehan.
“According to the agreement, that system will now be maintained by the county, and all repairs will be the responsibility of the county, and a failure of that system would be the responsibility of the county to replace it with a state-of-the-art irrigation system at that time,” the mayor said. “It [MOU] will solve the problem of Mystic Harbour, solve the problem with Coastal Bays, and solve financial issues for the Town of Ocean City, as well making all of the sewage disposal out of those parcels much better than what it is today.”
Councilman Dennis Dare also pointed out the agreement saves the county from purchasing land to install the same type of irrigation system, which would take that purchase of land off of the tax rolls resulting in a savings by utilizing land already owned and replacing the system.
Meehan was pleased to see the city and county work together for the greater good.
“Ocean City is part of Worcester County, and over the years our ability to partner on different things hasn’t been successful, and the fact that we have been able to sit down … to prepare a plan presented to both the Mayor and City Council and County Commissioners to be able to negotiate and come up with a win-win for both I think is a tremendous accomplishment. It shows we are making progress in working together and opens up the many opportunities for a bright future,” Meehan said.