OCEAN PINES – The Parke at Ocean Pines must continue to pay its wastewater bills as usual.
The Worcester County Commissioners on Tuesday denied the written request of Kristi Clarke, general manager of The Parke, for a reduction in sewer charges because of water used for landscaping.
The Parke, the homeowners association for active adults age 55 and older, has approximately 400 acres of land. Most of the land is used for individual lots, but the association owns and maintains a lot of common area.
The central square, which Clarke stated is the focal point for the association, offers “beautiful landscaping and gazebo fit for any outdoor summer picnic and celebration. It is in these particular areas that the Association has invested in landscaping enhancements over the years,” she wrote.
Those areas are irrigated with water from the county water supply, so the association pays for the water. It also pays, Clarke wrote, “for the sewer in relation to water consumption, with the assumption that the water supplied to this facility is also entering into the sewer, thus needing treatment.”
For several months each year, however, most of the water is not entering the sewer systems, but is going into the ground. Because of that, Clarke wrote that the association should get a discount on the sewer portion of the water bills during months of irrigation.
A separate meter in the pool pump room measures the amount of water used through the irrigation lines around The Parke clubhouse, which is one of the largest areas being irrigated. The clubhouse also has sewer, but water used there is supplied through the main water meter.
Clarke wrote that it would be very simple to record the amount of water used for irrigation and so the association was making its request to ask for a “reduction of the sewer portion of our bills in accordance to the meter that is installed for just irrigation water supplied through the main water supply line.” The request, she wrote, was appropriate because of the type of usage and the metering of that usage.
During the county commissioners meeting, Public Works Director John Tustin said it is not the county’s policy to allow for irrigation meters. The county has an irrigation meter for landscaping at the Ocean Pines Community Gardens, but no sewer is there. The county policy is to issue waivers only if sanitary sewer facilities are unavailable and the water is used on a very limited basis.
In his memo to the county commissioners, Tustin wrote that the county has a policy against allowing irrigation meters because allowing them would encourage overuse of a limited resource, which over pumped could lead to saltwater intrusion into the water supply aquifer due to the proximity of the coastal waters and because excessive water use could result in the need to construct water supply facilities prematurely.
The commissioners voted unanimously to deny Clarke’s request.
The Worcester County Commissioners on Tuesday denied the written request of Kristi Clarke, general manager of The Parke, for a reduction in sewer charges because of water used for landscaping.
The Parke, the homeowners association for active adults age 55 and older, has approximately 400 acres of land. Most of the land is used for individual lots, but the association owns and maintains a lot of common area.
The central square, which Clarke stated is the focal point for the association, offers “beautiful landscaping and gazebo fit for any outdoor summer picnic and celebration. It is in these particular areas that the Association has invested in landscaping enhancements over the years,” she wrote.
Those areas are irrigated with water from the county water supply, so the association pays for the water. It also pays, Clarke wrote, “for the sewer in relation to water consumption, with the assumption that the water supplied to this facility is also entering into the sewer, thus needing treatment.”
For several months each year, however, most of the water is not entering the sewer systems, but is going into the ground. Because of that, Clarke wrote that the association should get a discount on the sewer portion of the water bills during months of irrigation.
A separate meter in the pool pump room measures the amount of water used through the irrigation lines around The Parke clubhouse, which is one of the largest areas being irrigated. The clubhouse also has sewer, but water used there is supplied through the main water meter.
Clarke wrote that it would be very simple to record the amount of water used for irrigation and so the association was making its request to ask for a “reduction of the sewer portion of our bills in accordance to the meter that is installed for just irrigation water supplied through the main water supply line.” The request, she wrote, was appropriate because of the type of usage and the metering of that usage.
During the county commissioners meeting, Public Works Director John Tustin said it is not the county’s policy to allow for irrigation meters. The county has an irrigation meter for landscaping at the Ocean Pines Community Gardens, but no sewer is there. The county policy is to issue waivers only if sanitary sewer facilities are unavailable and the water is used on a very limited basis.
In his memo to the county commissioners, Tustin wrote that the county has a policy against allowing irrigation meters because allowing them would encourage overuse of a limited resource, which over pumped could lead to saltwater intrusion into the water supply aquifer due to the proximity of the coastal waters and because excessive water use could result in the need to construct water supply facilities prematurely.
The commissioners voted unanimously to deny Clarke’s request.