Mountain Christian Church Withdraws Wastewater Treatment Proposal

JOPPA, MD — Mountain Christian Church has withdrawn its application to create a wastewater treatment plant for discharging up to 5,000 gallons of treated sewage into the local waterways. The Maryland Department of the Environment confirmed the move, saying the agency plans to keep an eye on the Joppa church's next steps.

The Harford county church had been attempting to get a permit from Maryland Department of the Environment to install a water treatment plant that would allow it to increase its discharge capacity. It has decided to find another solution to its increased wastewater, after public concern and a review of available options.

Problems surfaced when Mountain Christian, with a growing membership, sought to increase the amount of treated wastewater it could release into local waterways from 2,400 gallons to 4,999 gallons per day, according to WMAR, which reported a hearing about the issue in early July was packed with residents concerned about the environmental impact on the Little Gunpowder; the water would be going into a Little Gunpowder Falls tributary.

Mountain Christian Church had also been issued multiple violations for its current septic system from the Maryland Department of the Environment, according to the news station.

State environmental personnel have been providing technical assistance to Mountain Christian on "its revised proposal to solve its wastewater issues," Maryland Secretary of the Environment Ben Grumbles said in a statement.

The church's initial plan called for creating a state-of-the-art filtration system. Now it has revised its proposal to include the "addition of an advanced treatment system for its groundwater discharge with no discharge to a tributary of the Little Gunpowder Falls," Grumbles said.

"We will carefully review and oversee the church’s remaining steps to put this promising system into place to ensure the protection of the environment and public health throughout the watershed," Grumbles added.

Baltimore County Councilman David Marks brought Mountain Christian's proposal to light in late June, before a July hearing on the project about which he noted he was never informed, since the church is in Harford County. He said he learned about the project through social media.

RELATED: Church Seeks Permit To Discharge into Little Gunpowder Falls

"The Mountain Christian Church has dropped plans to discharge treated wastewater into a waterway in the Kingsville area," Marks reported Thursday morning.

"The church will pursue an on-site alternative, something unanimously recommended by the Baltimore County Council in a resolution I sponsored," Marks said. "Many thanks to all who expressed their opinion on this issue. The Gunpowder River Valley is a beautiful resource for Baltimore and Harford Counties, one I will always fight to protect."

Mountain Christian Church chose to explore other options for its wastewater in part because of "some concern about this project," according to a statement.

"We decided to push pause on the process and work with MDE to think creatively, re-evaluate all the factors and possibilities, and discern if there were any other viable options," the church said a statement dated October 2019.

"Because of the advancement of technology and the purity levels of the effluent that are made possible by MBR (membrane bio-reactor) technology in wastewater treatment systems, our research has led us to the conclusion that subsurface discharge on our campus is possible," the church said. "As a result, we have alerted MDE that we are no longer pursuing the surface discharge permit."

Local lawmakers are also interested in ensuring those impacted by a project will also be notified even if they live in a county other than where the proposal occurs, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Here are the full statements from Mountain Christian Church:

Recently there has been some confusion and concern expressed on social media and local news media about the proposed wastewater treatment system for the Mountain Road campus. Unfortunately, it has stemmed from some posts that contained misinformation and false statements which has only created more confusion. Some have stated or assumed we want to discharge sewage into the Gunpowder River or mistreat the environment in some way. We feel it is important to bring the facts to light in order to bring clarity and assuage concern.

October 2019 Update
"What is true is that Mountain has been engaged in a solution-seeking process for our septic system on our Mountain Road Campus for several years. We have followed a thorough process outlined by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and sought the counsel of Maryland Environmental Services (MES), an independent State agency, and an engineering firm.

"Most recently, we were engaged in MDE’s process for a surface discharge permit and the installation of a state-of-the-art Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). The permit is the most protective that MDE has ever considered, and the water discharged from the proposed WWTP would far exceed the already stringent requirements for purity and monitoring. The system was designed specifically for the Chesapeake Bay area. The effluent from the WWTP would be far cleaner than the stream into which it would flow and would be monitored for optimal temperature, which is why these systems are in use all over the state and flowing into streams and rivers.

"At the same time, even with the presence of all these realities, the public meetings that were part of this process and the subsequent media publications revealed some concern about this project, of which we were not unaware. So we decided to push pause on the process and work with MDE to think creatively, re-evaluate all the factors and possibilities, and discern if there were any other viable options. Because of the advancement of technology and the purity levels of the effluent that are made possible by MBR (membrane bio-reactor) technology in wastewater treatment systems, our research has led us to the conclusion that subsurface discharge on our campus is possible. As a result, we have alerted MDE that we are no longer pursuing the surface discharge permit.

"In the meantime, we have suspended the discharge of any effluent from our current system. It is being contained onsite and hauled off by a third-party septic hauling company. The ultimate solution will require still more research, exploration, and planning, but we are confident that this thorough and environmentally-sound process will lead to an environmentally-sound solution, which has been our commitment from the beginning."