Several Counties Drop Out Of Challenge To $340 Million Conowingo Dam Settlement

By Christine Condon, Maryland Matters

December 23, 2025

Several Eastern Shore counties have withdrawn from an appeal of Maryland’s recertification for the Conowingo Dam, a challenge that the state feared could put a $340 million settlement with Constellation, the dam’s owner, in jeopardy.

But the county that hosts the dam, Cecil, is moving forward with the complaint, which argues that counties on the Shore were improperly excluded from the recertification process. Tbe appeal also bemoans the fact that the agreement itself does not guarantee that harmful sediment in the dam’s overflowing reservoir will be drained out.

The deal resolved years of legal wrangling between the dam owner and the state, pluscwaterkeeper groups that intervened in the litigation. In exchange for recertification — which is needed for Constellation to get a 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to keep operating the hydropower plant at the dam — Maryland is set to receive $340 million from Constellation for environmental projects at the site. If all goes according to plan for the state, the federal license will incorporate Maryland’s conditions.

Several counties on the Shore had joined the appeal of the certification filed by an attorney for the Clean Chesapeake Coalition. But Maryland Department of the Environment officials lobbied counties to rescind their complaint, arguing that it could muddy the waters as the dam tries to get its new FERC license.

Officials also worried that an anticipated policy change from the Trump administration, undermining states’ recertification authority, could make matters worse.

After those conversations, Dorchester and Kent counties opted to abandon the administrative appeal, which MDE will ultimately rule on. Queen Anne’s has also withdrawn, according to the state and the Coalition, but that county did not respond to a request for comment.

“They [MDE] explained to us more about how a delay in this agreement going through could hamper some of the actions they want to do to clean up the bay,” said Dorchester County Council President Lenny Pfeffer. “We’d rather see some cleanup than no cleanup.”

Cecil County, though, is holding pat, said county spokesperson Robert Royster.

In a statement earlier this month, Royster expressed concern that county leaders didn’t play a role in the settlement, and said that the county’s water intakes south of the dam, including in Perryville, Port Deposit and Havre de Grace, “continue to experience significant impacts from sediment and debris trapped behind the Conowingo Dam.”

Dorchester County officials also learned after filing the administrative appeal that “it wouldn’t be possible to change the negotiations between Constellation and the state,” because they occurred as part of the litigation, Pfeffer said.

“MDE has told us that they will be giving us a seat at the table going forward,” Pfeffer said.

Adam Ortiz, deputy secretary at the Department of the Environment, said the state has “committed to the parties that dropped the challenge that they can have an advisory role in the implementation of the projects.”

“We’ve had good conversations in recent weeks, and when good people talk, good things happen. So, we’re really glad that these counties have stepped back,” Ortiz said.

After nearly a decade of back-and-forth, state officials are eager to “get out of the courts and get to work,” Ortiz said.

Pfeffer said that his county council does not plan to renege on a $5,000 commitment to the attorney who filed the complaint, Charles “Chip” MacLeod. The money came from the county’s contingency funds, Pfeffer said.

Kent County also planned to send the same sum, said Ronald Fithian, president of the board of commissioners. But it’s unclear whether the funds were dispatched before the county reversed course, Fithian said.

Fithian said that the state promised to convene a meeting in January to discuss the Conowingo settlement with the counties, if they dropped the appeal.

“We just figured it might be better to work with them and go to this meeting,” Fithian said, “and see if we could recommend some ways that would make the bay a healthier place.”