By Brian Shane

Staff Writer

Worcester County residents on public water and sewer will have a chance to ask the county commissioners about recent rate increases and the state of the county’s sewerage infrastructure at the commissioners’ next meeting on Tuesday.

Commissioners President Ted Elder (District 4, Western) said county officials have been getting many emails from residents asking why their third-quarter water and sewer bills have increased so dramatically.

Because of that, they decided to hold a public hearing on Dec. 2 at the commissioners meeting in Snow Hill to let the public air their grievances, and to include department heads who could answer residents’ questions.

“We feel the quickest way to get their answers is to have a public hearing and be completely transparent,” Elder said.

County officials last year realized that several of the 11 water/wastewater districts serving the county were financially upside-down, with expenses far outweighing the revenue being generated by user fees. The districts were intended to be self-funded by user rates, but they were underfunded for years.

Their solution was to raise rates for users in all 11 sanitary sewer districts to cover operating and maintenance cost increases. If rates had not been raised, county officials said, then revenues would not cover actual expenses for the current fiscal year.

Customers will see in their bills that base fees per EDU have increased. Usage tiers were changed for residential and commercial customers. And the rates for West Ocean City customers changed from a “fixtures” basis to a “per EDU” basis.

Another new fee being charged is for “accessibility” of undeveloped land. It means the county is now charging users for EDUs they’ve been sitting on but aren’t using.

Budget issues have plagued the county’s sewerage systems for nearly two years now. The county in late 2024 was forced to deal with a budget shortfall from the 7 of 11 sewer district totaling nearly $2 million.

More than half the deficit was coming from the Mystic Harbor service area, which had been shut down for years with its sewage trucked to the Ocean Pines sewer plant for treatment. However, that facility just reopened, and officials say they’re already seeing cost savings by not having to pump and haul.

Elder said another major reason that sewer district finances were troubled was the growing cost of chemicals used to treat wastewater, which he blamed on inflation. Also at issue were additional regulatory requirements to test for PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), sometimes called “forever chemicals.

“If your prices go sky high, you’re going to normally complain,” he said. “But some of those prices should have been raised years ago – at least, part of what they’re going up now. It would have been a little easier to handle if it was done gradual, but it’s beyond that now.”

Elder added that he doesn’t believe the sewer districts in financial distress will be fully self-sufficient this year, even with increasing operating revenue from rate hikes, but “once it’s done, it’s going to be a lot better situation for everybody involved,” he said.

And, despite speculation, rate payers in the Ocean Pines district are not footing the bill for shortfalls in other areas, Commissioner Chip Bertino (District 5, Ocean Pines) said in a Facebook message to constituents on Oct. 31.

Bertino also said customer invoices are usually higher this time of year because homeowners had been irrigating their land in summer months, and the bill comes due in fall.

Higher maintenance costs and an enhanced regulatory environment “are realities that the County must manage,” with its water/sewer districts, according to Bertino.

“You don’t like the increases. I don’t like the increases. But, it’s imperative that the Ocean Pines Water/Wastewater facility and all our water facilities for that matter, be properly maintained and updated when necessary and operated efficiently in the best interests of all of us,” he wrote.