By Greg Ellison

(Sept. 2, 2021) After hosting an expert speaker to review the possibility of spraying wastewater effluent on the Ocean Pines Golf Course, the OPA’s Environment and Natural Assets Committee discussed other projects during its meeting last Wednesday.

Speaking to the committee about using highly treated wastewater effluent to irrigate golf courses was Ocean Pines Service Area Water & Wastewater Advisory Board member Fred Stiehl.

“Highly treated effluent” is defined as water meeting current Maryland Department of the Environment Bay Restoration standards.

Environmental and Natural Assets Committee Chairperson Ken Wolf said Stiehl was invited in advance of an “Effluent Town Hall,” slated for Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. at the Golf Course Clubhouse.

In February 2020, the Ocean Pines Service Area Water & Wastewater Advisory Board received permission from the Worcester County Commissioners to explore the possibility of spraying treated sewage effluent at the site.

Wolf said the Stiehl’s presentation was highly informative, since association officials received preliminary designs for related infrastructure upgrades this spring.

Among the benefits of spraying treated wastewater on the golf course, the committee learned, would be pulling less from the aquifer to water greens and fairways.

On average, 200,000 gallons of ground water are used daily to maintain conditions at the golf course during the summer.

“It would be recharging the aquifer rather than taking water out of it,” Wolf said.

Employing that irrigation method at the course would reduce demand on the five water supply wells that serve Ocean Pines.

Wolf said the approach also might reduce nutrients being discharged into area waterways.

“It still has trace amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus,” he said of the effluent.

Delving into other topics, committee members explored approaches for addressing mailbox clusters long in need of repairs.

“The mailbox issue is kind of in purgatory,” he said.

Wolf said members bandied ideas on how “to make it manageable.”

“Maybe we can’t move forward on all these mailboxes, but let’s take a look at moving forward on a few of them,” he said.

Last year, association officials estimated costs for pedestals at $35,000, with roughly $20,000 for mailboxes and about $10,000 in concrete work per cluster.

The committee proposed a piecemeal approach for the task would be determining opportune spots to begin the years long undertaking.

“It could be a combination of the worst and then some that we thought would get a lot of visibility,” he said. “So the community could actually see what what was involved.”

Another topic committee members discussed was the use of a small section of bay front property on a sliver of land across from the Beach Club on 49th Street that the association leases to Seacrets for parking.

“To see if there’s an opportunity there to do something to benefit the environment,” he said. “We’re in the early stages.”

While not looking to alter the longstanding agreement to lease the area to provide 450-plus parking spots, committee members looked for ways to accommodate Seacrets and their own objectives.

“It’s not anything about stepping away from the Seacrets’ use of the property, but what we could do to coexist with that, and have some benefits for property owners,” he said.

Wolf said one idea was to restore a bayside pier that existed at the site roughly a quarter century back.

“The fact that we have that waterfront property there’s some potential … at least we’re looking at it,” Wolf said.

Wolf said the Marine Activities Committee once explored the concept but to no avail.

“We did get the benefit of a report that was submitted to the board about 10 years ago by the Marine Activities Committee on ideas that they had to utilize some portion of that property,” he said.

Wolf said none of the earlier proposals for developing the section of bayside waterline earned support.

“They were totally spurned by the board about doing anything 10 years ago,” he said.