Red tape, green groups slow plans

Airport runway project encounters turbulence

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Unfortunately, he might have to wait a bit longer for his vision of a local airport with endless opportunity to be realized.

Thanks to a legal challenge issued by a dozen Maryland Waterkeeper groups on the Maryland Department of the Environment's stormwater discharge permit requirements, Bauserman's project defaulted into an individual permit process.

"I could be waiting a minimum of one month," Bauserman told a panel of local leaders and businessmen who had gathered in Indian Head last week to meet the new secretary of Maryland's Department of Business and Economic Development Christian S. Johansson.

Until this past winter, the statewide general permit took two days for an approval, but with the challenge unsettled at the start of the new year, the general permit expired and so the state began to issue individual ones in its place.

Once adequate resources are gathered and organized to address the state's half of the lawsuit settlement, the permit process will revert back to a general one.

"The Chesapeake Waterkeepers felt the [general] permit about to be renewed was not strong enough and needed to take a step further," said Assateague Coastkeeper Kathy Phillips. "We talk of things that impair waterways, and construction is just one of them."

Christopher Jaeger, a civil engineer with Talbert and Bright — the planning and engineering consultants for the airport — said the two permits issue the same authorization, but the difference lies in the process of obtaining a go-ahead.

The individual permit can take up to 10 days before MDE issues its determination for the project, and then there is a roughly 30-day period in which notices are published in local papers and a record is opened for public comment.

"I think the basic reason for the change was so that the rules would be more stringent and less of a ‘rubber stamp,'" said Karen Smith of the Maryland Department of the Environment Compliance Program.

Smith explained that within the state of Maryland, any construction project over an acre requires the permit to allow for stormwater drainage off the site.

Since the airport expansion will add an extra 1,300 feet — roughly six acres — to the current 3,000-foot runway, that meant Bauserman had to submit the application — which he did — but under the impression he'd have the permit in his hands in a matter of days.

Construction on the airport was scheduled to begin June 15.

The $30 million project includes the runway extension, a taxiway, aircraft parking apron and automobile access road. The hope is to provide a convenient alternative for fliers looking for an airport near metro- D.C. and Baltimore. It will also serve as a corporate gateway in the back yard of the Indian Head energetic technology and business park.

The Federal Aviation Administration's airport improvement program is footing 95 percent of the bill with revenue from airport user fees and fuel taxes, while the remaining 5 percent is paid for by the state's aviation administration and the owners of the airport, Bauserman Services Inc.

Besides the water discharge permit, the airfield has relatively clear skies as far as the remaining permit approvals go. Jaeger said the county signed off on the project June 25, in the form of a development services permit.

Though it will eventually turn into a joint permit with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Corps — which has given its blessing — the project still needs another nod from MDE on the impact of the construction on waterways, wetlands and streams.

Smith said the MDE received the drainage permit application on June 25 and that it had already been passed along for the first stage of public notice.

During the Indian Head meeting, Bauserman had expressed hope for an expedited process, and got many nods of sympathy for his frustration.

"This is a really important project for Charles County," said Dennis Chappell, president of the Indian Head Defense Alliance. "We're 15 miles from all the money in the world."

msomers@somdnews.com