O'Malley Lowers Septic Sights Slightly

MD Governor O'Malley offered to drop some of the portions of his plan to impose sewages systems statewide for any development with 5 or more houses, in an effort to make it less burdensome to farmers who fear it would impact plans to break up their farms and pass it on to family members.  Rather than requiring sewage systems in all cases:

The septics bill would only allow farmers to divide their land into parcels once -- a measure environmentalists say is designed to keep developers from skirting septic requirements by getting farmers to gradually sell them land over time.

However, amendments crafted by the governor would allow farmers to split their land four times, but only for family members, not for sale to developers. It would also allow farmers to divide their land for other, non-residential means, like building a winery or dairy operation.

Rather clever I think.  The farmers objected on the basis of their concerns about the break up of family farms, but I suspect their concerns went a lot deeper than that.  By giving them the one item they constantly used as an example, they will be hard pressed to say, "But........."

Previous posts on Gov. O'Malley's septic ban proposal here,  here,  here and here.