Anne Arundel County officials lifted a monthslong development moratorium Wednesday that was put in place this year because of problems with sewer capacity.
The county will “borrow” unused wastewater capacity from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to end the three-month moratorium quickly. Otherwise, it would take years for the county to develop additional capacity or divert sewage to another treatment facility.
Starting Feb. 27, officials paused all development in Northwest Anne Arundel County, including around Arundel Mills and the BWI Business District, key areas for business growth.
The moratorium was needed because Anne Arundel County was exceeding its agreed-upon capacity limits for sewage flowing through a pipeline in Baltimore County en route to a Baltimore City treatment plant. The moratorium paused at least 21 development projects that had not been approved for sewer connections, known as allocations.
County Executive Steuart Pittman said lifting the moratorium was possible because of regional and intergovernmental cooperation, and he thanked those partners for working on a “regional solution that allows us to protect the Patapsco River while continuing to deliver the housing and the jobs that our region depends on.”
Anne Arundel County officials negotiated with the Maryland Aviation Administration to “borrow” BWI’s unused wastewater capacity. County officials did not provide more details on the arrangement Thursday.
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The Aviation Administration reviewed its current usage and its plans for the next five years, county officials said.
“We are proud to help support our local economy by temporarily making excess sewer capacity available,” Maryland Aviation Administration CEO Shannetta Griffin said in a statement. “This agreement is an opportunity to advance responsible infrastructure planning and development.”
County Councilman Pete Smith, who represents part of the area that was under the moratorium, called the agreement “good for the community and county.”
Smith said he thought the county could have handled the pause “internally,” rather than announcing a moratorium and scaring people.
Additionally, county officials said they were told by the Maryland Department of the Environment that the actual peak flow measurements are lower than the calculated flow, “providing the county with some additional peak flow capacity.”
In Pittman’s proposed budget, he allocated about $60 million from the county’s Department of Public Works fund to start planning projects to divert wastewater flow from Baltimore into the county’s own facilities.
Construction of those diversion projects is expected to be complete within four or five years, officials said.
The moratorium covered a region of the state where officials embraced development and encouraged growth. Pittman, appearing before the County Council in March, described the area as an economic hub and a tax base for the county and all of Maryland.
Three of the 21 projects impacted by the moratorium are at the step in the development process when they are ready to receive their allocations, county officials said
Lori Graf, CEO of the Maryland Building Industry Association, said she was happy the county took the issue seriously but that she has concerns.
“We want to make sure we have some sort of long-term solution in place to prevent this from happening again,” she said.
The sewers in the northwest part of Anne Arundel connect to a sprawling regional network serving around 1.6 million people, managed by Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
The capacity problem became apparent when Anne Arundel officials were reviewing the agreements that govern the county’s use of that network.
Anne Arundel officials said they had been operating with the understanding that the county’s allotted sewage capacity to the Baltimore County Patapsco Interceptor and Sewage Pumping Station was based on average daily flow.
In 2023, though, Anne Arundel staff began reviewing its wastewater agreements and discovered the 1981 arrangement between Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties called for capacity to be calculated based on peak flow.
Using the peak flow measurement, Anne Arundel County had exceeded its capacity at the pumping station.
At a mid-March briefing before the County Council, Anne Arundel Department of Public Works Director Karen Henry described using average flow to determine capacity as “traditional industry standard.”
She said the city of Baltimore bases its billing on average flow, not peak flow — and both factors contributed to why county staff did not see the problem sooner.
On Feb. 9, 2026, Baltimore County told Anne Arundel staff that additional capacity could not be purchased.
This article has been updated.
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