Devastating. Concerning. Never again.

Reactions to the indefinite development moratorium imposed this week on a small but economically important part of Anne Arundel County range from the bad to the ugly.

The moratorium came as a surprise Monday, when the county Department of Public Works instituted it because part of its sewage system exceeded capacity during wet weather. In other words, it was sending too much sewage into regional lines leading to Baltimore’s Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant.

County Executive Steuart Pittman called the moratorium necessary to prioritize the health and safety of county residents and the environment.

But it falls across a key part of the county’s northwest, which includes the thriving business district west of Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Arundel Mills Mall, and is just north of Fort Meade, the state’s largest employment center.

“It’s the economic engine for the state of Maryland,” said County Councilman Pete Smith, a Democrat who represents the area.

Smith said he wasn’t notified of the moratorium in advance and that, in all his time on the council, he had never heard of sewage capacity as a concern limiting development.

“We can never find ourselves in this situation again,” Smith said.

The moratorium

The moratorium means no new projects that need to connect to a sewer line will be approved — whether residential, commercial or other projects. And officials said it could last five years or more, stymieing investment and economic growth.

Lori Graf, CEO of the Maryland Building Industry Association, said she almost immediately began hearing from members trying to understand the scope of the order.

It came without warning, she said. She’s never seen a blanket development moratorium like this before.

“We’re still trying to exactly figure out the ramifications,” Graf said. “It’s early stages, but it’s very concerning.”

Regardless of how long this moratorium lasts, Graf said, it creates uncertainty for investors and developers.

The sewers in Northwestern Anne Arundel County connect to a sprawling regional system serving around 1.6 million people and overseen by the public works departments of Baltimore city and county. Both of those departments operate under court-enforced federal consent decrees to stem sewage overflows.

Anne Arundel’s problem became apparent when the county’s public works staff changed how it evaluates sewage capacity, said Amy Mininger, the department’s spokesperson, in an email.

After a recent review of the county’s interjurisdictional agreements on sewage, Mininger said, county staff members realized they needed to evaluate capacity based on “peak flow” rather than “average daily flow.”

“This shift represents a move toward a more conservative methodology for measuring system stress during extreme events and complies with the Baltimore County and Baltimore City Consent Decrees,” Mininger wrote.

Looking at peak flow, county staff determined some pumping stations operate above capacity.

The county learned it would not be able to purchase new capacity on Feb. 9, Mininger said. The moratorium order was signed Feb. 27, according to a copy of the notice online, and announced Monday.

Projects already approved for sewage hookups can move forward, but there are 18 projects in development that cannot proceed, county officials said. And no new projects will be approved in the moratorium area.

Although DPW said it eventually could divert the sewage flows, studying, designing and implementing such a solution could take five years, Mininger said.

The fallout

Dewan Clayborn, CEO of the Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce, said he’s never seen a moratorium like this. The freeze on new development, he said, threatens jobs and tax revenue.

“There should have been somebody sounding the alarm earlier,” Clayborn said. “It’s going to have a ripple effect.”

Anne Arundel County Councilwoman Allison Pickard, who represents part of the moratorium area, is unsatisfied with the county’s response.

“Why county government was caught off guard by this, we need to understand,” she said.

Pickard, a Democrat, represents a smaller slice of the moratorium area than Smith. But the county’s economy doesn’t follow district borders, she said, and taxes from the moratorium area support the whole county.

Pickard said she’s been frustrated with members of the county administration and staff not seeming to match her level of concern.

“I feel like I’m getting gaslighted a little bit,” Pickard said. “We need serious leadership, strong leadership, right now moving us through this crisis. If the answer at the end of the day is really a five-plus-year moratorium, it’s devastating.”

Amy Gowan, president and CEO of the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp., said it was “still early to assess the long-term impacts.”

“A key priority is helping establish clear processes that provide businesses with predictability when making decisions about locating and investing in Anne Arundel County,” Gowan wrote in an email.

Mininger said DPW looked at “every possible alternative” before imposing a moratorium.

“As licensed professional engineers, we have an ethical and legal obligation to maintain the integrity of our system and not violate our inter-jurisdictional agreements,” she wrote.

Pittman, who is chair of the Maryland State Democratic Party, declined to comment further Thursday and deferred technical questions about the moratorium to DPW.

“The county is evaluating diversion alternatives to resolve the issue and lift the moratorium,” he said in a statement this week. “We all want to lift the moratorium on new allocations as quickly as possible, but we must put the wellbeing of our residents first.”

The County Council will meet for a scheduled work session Tuesday morning. Councilmembers said they were preparing questions for Department of Public Works staff.

Gabby Reed, a spokesperson for Pittman, said she was unsure as of Thursday afternoon whether Pittman would attend.

The Banner’s Adam Willis contributed to this article.