A controversial dredging permit for a tiny cove off the Severn River in Crownsville put on full display the quirky nature of the business before the Board of Public Works Wednesday.
The governor, comptroller and treasurer, who routinely approve $8 billion worth of government contracts during the year, are also the court of last resort for wetlands licenses.
The Board heard two hours of testimony on a small permit to dredge two three-foot-deep channels 20 feet wide on Fox Creek, one 180 feet long, the other 165 feet long.
In the course of a sometimes emotional hearing – a civil engineer who lives on the creek actually broke down in tears over the prospect of the dredging and the audience got a short course on dredging, underwater grasses, navigation rights and boating charts.
But like most planning and zoning hearing, which is how O’Malley likened the session, it was also about old residents who like the way things are on what has been officially designated “a gem of the Severn,” and new residents who want change.
Twists and turns
The permit was first requested six years ago by residents who had moved in recently and wanted to be able to bring boats in from the Severn to their new docks and piers. Since the small inlet has silted up due to erosion just up the river, they can only get the larger craft in at high tide.
The argument really hinges on whether Fox Creek was ever much deeper than it is now, specifically if large boats could sail in there in before 1971, when the new wetlands law took effect.
After comments and a public hearing, in 2006 the Maryland Department of the Environment approved the permit. Opponents squawked, there was a public meeting with new testimony, and last August, a year later – under a new Democratic administration — MDE reversed itself, saying there was little evidence big boats could ever navigate Fox Creek.
Not so fast, said Wetlands Administrator Doldon Moore. There is an aerial photograph from the early 1970s showing a 25-foot boat tied to a dock there, and earlier boating charts showing a depth of three feet.
As if this bureaucratic squabble wasn’t enough, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued permits twice for the dredging, but it is opposed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Swaying the board
Proponents seemed to sway the board members in the first hour, persuaded by Moore’s arguments and those of the newer property owners. Then long-time residents, aided by two lawyers, made the case that this tidal pool filled with fish and wildlife – it’s really not a creek – should be left in the condition that attracted them to move there. They also produced even older aerial photos showing no boats and a shallow inlet.
By the end of the hearing, O’Malley declared he needed more time to consult with attorneys and examine the record before he decided which of the state bureaucrats he should side with.
O’Malley told me Friday these kind of disputes probably shouldn’t wind up before the board, but “this was an unusual case. Most of them get approved without any comment.”
He had hoped that new Critical Areas legislation would help these get resolved at the front end. “It would be nice to find a better way to do this,” O’Malley said.
Moore predicted there would be “a court challenge no matter which way it goes.”
Expensive race for Congress
The final fundraising figures are in for the 1st Congressional District Race, showing that in the last 20 days of the campaign, Democratic Frank Kratovil, who won by only 2,800 votes collected a prodigious $434,000. Republican Andy Harris raised $316,000 in the same period. (Some money came in after the election.)
Not including the more than $3 million in independent spending by outside groups, the two candidates raised close to $5 million: Kratovil $1.9 million, and Harris $2.8 million, but much of that was spent on the Republican primary to defeat Wayne Gilchrest.
Kratovil got major funding from Democratic incumbents in Congress — $5,000 from the Congressional Black Caucus – but major corporate and union political action committees weighed in too.
More than a third of Harris’s money came through members of the Club for Growth, as well as physicians like himself.
Kratovil is expected to face a tough reelection fight in 2010, but he already has the makings of a campaign organization on his new congressional staff. Tim McCann, his campaign manager, will become his chief of staff, and press secretary Kevin Lawlor will fill that role on the Hill.
