At-large commissioner candidates Buddy Hance, an incumbent Republican, left, and Democrat Chelsea Montague listen and ponder answers to questions asked at the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce’s candidates forum on Sept. 29 at the Prince Frederick firehouse.

Calvert County sheriff’s candidates, Republican Ricky Cox, left, and Democrat Vaughn “Jay” Johnson answered questions on law enforcement issues at the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce’s Sept. 29 candidates forum at the Prince Frederick firehouse.

At-large commissioner candidates Buddy Hance, an incumbent Republican, left, and Democrat Chelsea Montague listen and ponder answers to questions asked at the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce’s candidates forum on Sept. 29 at the Prince Frederick firehouse.

Calvert County sheriff’s candidates, Republican Ricky Cox, left, and Democrat Vaughn “Jay” Johnson answered questions on law enforcement issues at the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce’s Sept. 29 candidates forum at the Prince Frederick firehouse.

In rural Calvert County, expansion and upgrades to sewage systems are viewed as a boon and a bane. With Election Day looming the topic is being discussed in the political arena.

On Sept. 29, the Calvert County Chamber of Commerce held a forum for county commissioner candidates at the Prince Frederick firehouse.

Chamber board chairman Mark Frisco, who served as forum moderator, asked the participating commissioner candidates a question about addressing the dilemma of failing septic systems.

“With the amount of failing septic systems in Calvert County and the challenges posed to businesses attempting to open in an area that requires a septic system, are you open to expanding public water and sewer to areas that are in need?” he asked.

Some of the answers given tended to veer toward solving the septic issues in residential areas that might find public sewer as the only route to keeping property values viable.

“There are several older communities in Calvert County that have issues with septic — Apple Greene in Dunkirk, Patuxent View down on Route 231 — a couple others that have issues,” said Earl F. “Buddy” Hance, an incumbent Republican seeking a second term as one of two commissioners serving at large. “The only way to address those issues based on the density in those communities and the soil types ... a lot of people talk about having sewer in those areas. The cost of putting that sewer in place is very expensive.”

Hance continued, saying, “But, as time goes on and more and more homeowners have holding tanks and have issues with resale, there’s going to be a great push to get those homes on a sewer system. In Dunkirk, commercial businesses have the same issue. There’s going to come a time when citizens are going to have to come together and approve a plan to put sewer in those areas.”

“I understand there are some communities that are completely against it, so there has to be some sort of balance,” said Chelsea A. Montague, a Democrat from Lusby also running in the at-large race. “We can’t have homes on holding tanks. Their property values will tank. If they ever want to sell their home when they retire they won’t be able to, because, who would buy their home? We need to find a balance between putting people onto septic or sewer and updating our infrastructure so we can handle this.”

“I am open to it if the residents are wanting it,” said Darrell Roberts, a Democrat running in the third election district. “I think any time we are going to make any of these sort of suggestions and the residents are not aware, then we have to stop. We have to open it up to a town hall. We have to talk about the ramifications of what this means. That includes cost and/or unsustainable growth.”

“I think cost really is the issue here,” said Democrat Tricia V. Powell of Lusby, who is running in the first election district. “I would want to talk to the local citizens about bringing in any public sewage system. I feel by bringing them into the issue there’s got to be a point where people will understand we need to transition our infrastructure. Septic systems are failing. We need to do something about them.”

Third district Republican candidate Catherine Grasso declared the ongoing sewer issue in the Prince Frederick town center “is a result of high density housing that I don’t support. We need to take a look at our infrastructure. We need to see where the most need is and bring it to the people. I would always go back to the people but I would not go empty handed. I would go with the knowledge of alternatives that we may be able to take to improve the situation.”

“There’s an issue with failing septics, but it’s a double-edged sword,” said Mike Hart, an incumbent Republican commissioner seeking a third term as the first election district board member. Hart explained after a sewer is upgraded, “all of a sudden you can connect an apartment to it. Let’s say it’s 500 units. That’s a thousand cars. It’s the impact on schools, the impact on law enforcement. So it’s not as simple as, ‘We’ve got these failing systems.’ Maybe you fix that issue but what do you create after that?”

Republican Mark C. Cox Sr., who is running in District 2, sees the problem of getting homes out of the distress of relying on a holding tank to retain sewage as fixable with legislation. He added the Maryland Department of Environment “just came down a few months ago with some new regs that our health department will not tell us how to fix our septics anymore.”

Cox added, “The science on these systems has gone leaps and bounds of cleaning these waters up. We have to have good conversations on how to fix these failing systems and it can be done.”

Cox indicated that one lingering issue to be decided is who will pay for the fixes.

Subscribe to this newsletter to have the latest obituaries delivered to your inbox weekdays at 5:30 pm.

A roundup of SoMdNews Headlines delivered to your inbox twice weekly, for free!

Your account has been registered, and you are now logged in.

Check your email for details.

Invalid password or account does not exist

Submitting this form below will send a message to your email with a link to change your password.

An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the e-mail address listed on your account.

Your purchase was successful, and you are now logged in.

A receipt was sent to your email.