EASTON, MARYLAND — Talbot’s two enhanced nutrient removal wastewater plants are in the state’s FY 2027 operations-and-maintenance grant book. On Sept. 2, 2026, the Board of Public Works approved Maryland Department of the Environment Item 10: up to $11 million in Bay Restoration Fund grants to 57 plants that already run at the ENR level.

Talbot lines on the recipient table: Easton Utilities’ Easton ENR Wastewater Treatment Plant, $162,712.40; Talbot County’s Talbot Region II ENR Wastewater Treatment Plant, $37,989.57. Those are annual O&M grants, not new construction awards. MDE’s item notes the Bay Restoration Fund Act lets the department allocate up to 10% of annual wastewater-user revenue deposited with MDE for O&M at plants operating at ENR.

How the awards are built. MDE describes a base grant of $30,000 for every million gallons per day of design capacity, with a minimum of $30,000 (unless prorated for a partial year) and a maximum of $300,000 per year per plant, plus extra grants for plants that beat ENR targets. Statewide, MDE says plants in the program have cut nitrogen discharged to the Chesapeake Bay by more than 10,788,000 pounds per year and phosphorus by more than 1,136,000 pounds per year at or below 3 mg/L total nitrogen and 0.3 mg/L total phosphorus.

MDE’s Sept. 2 news release framed the same $11 million O&M tranche alongside nearly $12 million in Prince George’s County drinking-water main replacements — together nearly $23 million approved that day. For Shore readers, the local ledger is the Easton and Region II lines.