Sewer Ban Latest Misfire
In The War Against SprawlFeb. 1999
Need a simple way to end urban sprawl?
Then simply ban the construction of sewers.No sewers, no home building.
Right?Wrong!
While you can not build dense concentrations without
sewers, you can build 1 or 2 homes per square mile.This means an even more spread-out urban areas.
In Calvert County, Maryland the town of
Dunkirk's council members approved the
limited construction of more sewer lines.Town folk were angry, they organized
and voted the council members out.
They even went so far as to put ads in the
local paper to make sure everyone knew
the council was being financed by
developers like Gardiner and Howlin Inc.
37 local developers tried to keep
the pro-sewer council in office.
President of the board of commissioners, Hagner Mister,
got over 33% of his campaign $$$ from developers.Republicans took control of the counci
l for the first time since the 1950s.One of the new commissioners owns a 5 acre spread.
(Imagine if everyone in America had this much land.)No more sewers.
But now construction will just take place some where else.
The people who were against the sewers
all live in single-family housing units.
These are the root of the problem.On top of this, many of the areas septic tanks
are old and rusting. These allow raw sewage
to flow into the Chesapeake Bay.Last summer, Prince Williams County, Va.
banned sewers from about 1/2 the land.
Only problem was they failed to encourage
construction of high rise dwellings.New Jersey voters approved a plan to buy land
and ban construction on it. Californians tightened
restrictions on home building on the area lemon groves.Over 200 "anti-sprawl" ballot initiatives
were approved nationwide.
None were part of detailed plan to deal w/ the problem.Leave it to Americans to come up w/ a
solution that actually exacerbates a problem.