WORCESTER COUNTY, Md. - Worcester County officials spent Monday morning walking meeting attendees through why their water and sewer bills are going up and what the new rates mean for each community.
Enterprise Fund Controller Quinn Dittrich led an informational meeting on the fiscal year 2026 water and sewer rates. He said the main goal was to explain how the county set the new numbers and why some bills look different than they did a year ago.
“The main goal of this meeting was to inform the customers of the fiscal year 26 rates that were adopted, and to show them what their bills looked like and why they looked like that,” Dittrich said.
The county’s sanitary systems are run as enterprise funds, which are supposed to pay for themselves through customer bills. Officials say the new rates are meant to make each service area self sufficient and able to cover day to day operations, long term maintenance and planned projects. Dittrich said there is some “catch up” involved from past decisions, but he described the approach as more forward looking than backward.
“It is moving forward in a proactive fashion to keep the rates sustainable and the service areas self sufficient,” he said.
Worcester County Commissioner Eric Fiori said many of the systems were originally built by developers, which kept upfront costs low but created higher long term maintenance needs. He said those earlier choices are part of why bills are rising now.
“Unfortunately, most of them are developer based systems that are very cheap to install and very expensive to maintain,” Fiori said.
Fiori said he has been pushing for what he calls conventional and nontraditional ways to reduce bills over time. That includes a new allowance from Ocean City that will let the county send some flow there to be treated. He said design work on that connection is expected to move forward and could eventually lower operating costs in service areas such as Mystic Harbour, the Landings and Assateague Pointe.
“Unfortunately, this problem has been ignored for quite a few years,” Fiori said. “What I have been doing and will continue to do is find innovative ways to reduce these bills.”
No one from the public stepped up to speak during Monday morning’s meeting, but county officials say they still expect to hear questions and feedback as more people look over their bills and the newly adopted rate charts.
Dittrich said anyone who is having trouble paying should contact the county. He said staff can help connect people with agencies that may be able to offer financial assistance. County leaders also say a copy of the rate presentation is available for customers who want a closer look at how the changes affect their specific service area.