PERSPECTIVE:  TMDLs and the Sussex
County Development Community

We all are aware that total maximum daily load (TMDL) implementation will likely have dramatic impacts on land use.  When land use on a parcel changes from a category that has a low regulatory burden, such as agriculture or forestry, to a more highly regulated use, such as commercial or residential development, water quality improvement practices can be required by the approving authority to help meet TMDL goals.  Developers will soon have to toe the TMDL line in order to gain site plan approval for their projects.

A casual observer to the development process may think that TMDLs could serve as a brake to development or even to stop it altogether.  As a consultant and citizen planner who regularly works with developers, I do not think that will be the case.  The current state of TMDL enforcement for the Inland Bays — where the Pollution Control Strategy (PCS) has not yet been approved, and the regulations to support the PCS implementation have not been implemented — is likely causing more unrest for developers than will occur once all PCS processes and regulations are in place.  Developers are people too — change and ambiguity can lead to stress.  Once they know what is required of their projects to meet TMDL goals, they will step up and implement the needed design standards to reach TMDL compliance, just as they comply with site plan and zoning codes, wetland and shoreline issues, landscaping and traffic planning, and building construction standards.

I expect the most painful changes involving TMDL implementation will be faced by the farming and forestry folks, along with existing developments and homeowners that may not have all nutrient reducing practices in place.  Retrofitting existing homes and businesses to meet TMDLs can be expensive at best, and impossible at worst.  Farmers have been required to develop and implement nutrient management plans, but TMDLs could call for mandatory buffering and other farmland set-asides that will be costly.  Developers are accustomed to dealing with the multiple layers of costs and regulations that TMDLs can bring, but the average homeowner and farmer may not have the resources to implement nutrient reduction.

Stay tuned — this will all get more interesting in the next few months as the PCS goes to the public hearing stage.