SALISBURY – Officials in Wicomico County voted this week to introduce legislation banning dissolved air flotation (DAF) storage tanks.
On Tuesday, the Wicomico County Council voted 5-2, with Council President John Cannon and Councilman Joe Holloway opposed, to introduce legislation banning open-top storage of liquid organic fertilizer or soil amendments.
The bill, one of three presented to the council on Tuesday, will now advance to a public hearing and possible vote on Oct. 4.
“From what we’ve seen tonight, it’s telling me Wicomico County is a terrible county to have DAF tank,” Councilman Bill McCain said. “We have a tremendous amount of tidal wetlands, nontidal wetlands, stream buffers … Anywhere you try to put one, you have to deal with these issues.”
The topic of DAF tanks was first introduced in 2019, when a building permit was issued to allow a local farmer to construct a multi-million-gallon DAF tank on Porter Mill Road. Several nearby residents and environmental advocacy groups, however, have since shared their concerns with the council regarding the smells and potential hazards associated with the tank. There has also been litigation in Wicomico County Circuit Court challenging the validity of that storage tank and the permit issued for its construction.
In the years since the issue was first brought to the council’s attention, the legislative body has enacted – and extended – a moratorium on the issuance of building permits related to the construction of DAF tanks. Now, with the latest moratorium set to expire at the end of the year, officials are exploring proposed legislation, if not an outright ban, that would restrict DAF tanks.
“This issue started when I first got on the council over three-and-a-half years ago, and here we are at the end of my term and we still haven’t had a resolution,” Councilwoman Nicole Acle said this week. “Whatever direction we take, I would like to see us move forward with something tonight.”
On Tuesday, council members had before them three legislative bills – one to prohibit DAF tanks, one permitting DAF tanks in the I-2 heavy industrial zone with certain restrictions, and one permitting DAF tanks in the A-1 agricultural-rural zone with certain restrictions.
Cannon said the goal was to introduce one of the bills and come to some sort of resolution on the matter.
“What we’re trying to do here is come up with some sort of reasonable compromise …,” he said. “We don’t want to compromise an industry, but we certainly don’t want to subject neighborhoods to the issues and problems that have come before us.”
Discussions kicked off this week with a motion to introduce a ban on DAF tanks. McCain, however, suggested an amendment that would allow closed-system tanks in the I-2 industrial zone by special exception.
“Essentially this legislative bill and amendment prohibits the storage of DAF in open-air storage tanks but permits by special exception in the I-2 district the use of closed system storage facilities, usually known as anaerobic digestive systems,” he said. “It’s also permitted that a farmer that may be creating it on their own site could actually store the material under this as well.”
While McCain argued his amendment reached some sort of compromise, Cannon said it completely changed the language of the bill.
“I have really huge concerns over what we’re looking at right now …,” he said. “What you are presenting here, in my opinion, is not an amendment, this is an entirely new bill.”
After a lengthy discussion, Cannon ultimately ruled McCain’s amendment as out of order.
“I have the responsibility as well, and I think this is in violation of the ethics of the council and the charter, our political procedure, the legislative process …,” he said. “I certainly welcome you to fine-tune this and bring it back in the form of a work session.”
In a presentation this week, Wicomico County GIS Coordinator Frank McKenzie noted that there were 66 parcels in the industrial zone and 154 parcels in the agricultural zone that met the setback requirements for DAF tanks. Those numbers, however, winnowed down to 13 available industrial parcels and seven available agricultural parcels, once proposed restrictions were added.
“When you start throwing these layers on, everything gets reduced,” he said.
When asked if it was legal to impose an outright ban on DAF tanks, county attorney Paul Wilber advised the council it was the least defensible.
“I think of the three bills you have in front of you, the one that relates to A-1 is the most legally defensible,” he said. “The I-2 bill, if you look at Mr. McKenzie’s maps, you will see that is effectively a ban, which is what the first bill is. It’s not that you can’t do any of the three, but in terms of a legal perspective defending them, the A-1 bill is the most defensible.”
Cannon said he favored legislation that permitted DAF tanks in the A-1 zone. He pointed out that parcels in the heavy industrial districts bordered heavily populated areas.
“I-2 is probably the worst decision we can make,” he said. “It borders schools, it borders residential developments, it borders Delmar, it borders Salisbury, it borders Fruitland and the Henry Parker Complex.”
McCain, however, disagreed.
“I-2 allows for landfills, heavy manufacturing, but you are saying DAF is too bad?” he said.
For his part, Councilman Ernie Davis cautioned the council against legislation that could hurt local farmers. Both he and Councilman Josh Hastings suggested the council allow some sort of closed-top tank for the storage of liquid organic fertilizer.
Councilman Joe Holloway said he was in favor of placing DAF tanks in the A-1 zone, adding that a ban would not solve the county’s problems.
“It needs to be moved to ag because it’s ag. They are putting this product on fields, using it to grow crops …,” he said. “If this goes and we ban these tanks, the fear in this room right now amongst the poultry companies, amongst the growers, is they’re next.”
