SALISBURY – Officials say they want more feedback before approving plans for countywide water and sewer.
On Tuesday, George, Miles & Buhr (GMB) representative Katherine McAllister met with members of the Wicomico County Council to discuss a draft water and sewer master plan.
While the countywide plan was released late last month with a goal of receiving council’s approval, officials this week said they wanted more input before moving forward.
“I think this is the biggest thing that’s held the county back in terms of growth,” Councilman Josh Hastings said. “That being said, I want to make sure we have the right growth.”
In September, GMB representatives delivered their final draft of a water and sewer master plan, providing a roadmap of sorts for financing, constructing and maintaining a countywide system.
“The purpose of this was to provide a plan to look at the county’s existing growth areas to see where you have failing septic issues,” McAllister said this week. “We did develop a plan that I do want to emphasize is fluid. It hopefully gives you an idea of where to start if you are going to address these on-site systems that are failing.”
Simply put, officials say the plan identifies 12 potential water and/or sewer utility service districts within the county’s growth areas and calls for the creation of a public works water division and more than $200 million worth of infrastructure.
McAllister noted that while 12 areas have been identified as proposed service areas for county water and sewer, two – East Delmar and East Wicomico – were not listed as priorities.
“Even though in the comprehensive plan those two areas are identified as growth areas – and they may be in 20, 30 years – at this point we do not anticipate them being large growth areas,” she said.
McAllister told officials this week potential service districts were identified using growth areas within the county’s comprehensive plan. Councilman Joe Holloway, however, said the master plan did not identify areas east of Salisbury.
“We hear a lot about failing septic systems, and the area you don’t have identified, where we have the biggest problems, is the area directly east of Salisbury,” he said.
McAllister noted that the area was identified in the City of Salisbury’s growth boundary. She noted it wasn’t logical for the county to duplicate any services within those boundaries.
“How they are served, from a political standpoint we do not get involved with that,” she said. “From a technical standpoint, we believe anybody within a municipal growth boundary should be served by that municipality.”
Holloway, however, noted that Salisbury would not allow for water and sewer service without annexation.
“We’ve heard that from all the municipalities we’ve talked to,” McAllister replied. “The Town of Delmar was open to urban services, but that was the only one.”
McAllister told officials this week it was her company’s recommendation that the county enter the water and sewer business, develop a water division and serve residents that are not currently within any municipal growth boundaries.
“As you move forward that way, you may find that you have other alternatives as far as working with municipalities to help share some of the burdens that they have,” she said.
McAllister said the county’s first steps include altering water and sewer.
