If you care about Calvert County’s Environmental, Natural and Water Resources and want to make sure our plan for the next 20 years protects these, start reading and writing now. Mistakes and oversights in the conservation of these thing are often permanently damaging and irreversible. We need to get it right the first time.

You only have until this Friday August 31 close of business(COB) to e-mail the Planning Commission at pz@calvertcountymd.gov  (“Calvert 2040 comments” in the subject line) on these topics of the Calvert County Comprehensive Plan, May 2018 draft.  (Comments on Government & Community Facilities are also due.) This is because at 7pm on Wednesday Sept 19, 2018 the Planning Commission will be “discussing” these subjects.  The meeting is at Harriet Brown Community Center, 901 Dares Beach Rd in Prince Frederick and open to the public.

We will help you get that done. You can find the whole Comp Plan 2018 Draft here, and jump ahead to the page numbers we identify. Page 59 for Env’t & Natural Resources and to page 124 for Water Resources. Below are some highlights & lowlights, including page numbers, to speed your reading:

• Establishment or expansion of sewer systems in Town Centers.  Huntingtown is a Town Center (Pg 133)
• A 2014 study found “levels in Calvert’s aquifers have decreased by between 61 and 199 feet as increases in pumping…have caused groundwater levels to continually decline which could affect the availability of drinking water…in Calvert County” (Pg 126).   Arsenic in well water (Pg 129)
• “The most prevalent pollutants within Calvert County’s watershed are nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment” and “the county’s major point-source polluters are wastewater treatment plants.” (Pg 66)
• Hunting Creek Watershed Management Plan was last updated in 1993…25 years ago. A stream survey indicating 56% of County streams were in poor or very poor condition. (Pg 63)
• Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) have identified 20 animal and 83 plant species as Rare, Threatened and Endangered in Calvert  (Pg 60)
• 65% of forest interior habitat is threatened by development (Pg 68)
• Calvert County does meet the EPA’s National Ambient Air Quality Standards (pg 70)
• Nuclear waste from Calvert Cliffs Power Plant is currently stored on site because a federal repository is not yet available (Pg 72)

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Do you plan ahead with your $$$…how much do you have and how much is left after paying the bills? Is your home important to you? How much can you pay in rent or mortgage, and what style of housing suits your needs? What else is most important?  Schools, minimizing traffic on your commute, protecting our natural resources, frugal government spending, building more apartments and shopping centers?

How will Calvert County address these key issues for ALL OF US in the next 20 years until the year 2040? That is the big question that the Calvert County Comprehensive Plan will try to answer. It is the OFFICIAL policy document that touches every decision. The Planning Commission (PC) will hold a work session tomorrow evening, Wednesday August 22nd at 7pm at the Calvert Pines Senior Center at 450 West Dares Beach Rd in Prince Frederick. Come and listen. Comp Plan Chapter 6 on Housing, Chapter 8 on Economic Development and Chapter 2 on Key Issues identified by the citizens will be studied. Please attend to see if the PC is representing you.

What? No one asked YOU what the key issues are for Calvert County? That is because the Comp Plan update process has not effectively sought out the opinion of Calvert citizens. Sure, the info is posted on the county website but you are expected to visit the site yourself, unearth the info, read it, and provide feedback via e-mail to pz@calvertcountymd.gov. Who has time for that? How about an online survey, a postcard in the mail, someone taking notes on a tablet, 30 second video interviews at local events, being able to ask questions at a meeting and getting a response on the spot? Nope, none of that. But the private groups who have taken the initiative to say what they want, seem to have been heard loud and clear. Will their needs benefit the rest of us?

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