Common Council to vote tonight on $16 million in state loans for Westminster's water reuse project

The Westminster Common Council is scheduled to vote tonight on borrowing up to $16 million from the state to help pay for the city's water reuse project. The project would purify treated wastewater and send it into Cranberry Reservoir, where it would be treated again at the city's drinking water plant. Under the terms laid out in the meeting agenda packet, $7 million of that would be forgiven after 10 years if the city holds up its end of the loan agreement.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 1838 Emerald Hill Lane, and will stream on the city's YouTube channel. Residents can address the council during the citizen comments period at the end of the meeting.

The project, known as PUREWater Westminster, would be Maryland's first to reuse wastewater for drinking water, The Baltimore Sun reported in 2024. The city's water troubles go back at least to a 2002 drought, when it restricted water use and trucked in water from a nearby quarry, according to the Sun and a city fact sheet. Water shortages led state environmental regulators to impose a temporary building moratorium on the city in 2007, according to the project description in the loan agreements. A consent decree that year required the city to manage its drinking water more carefully, after it had promised more water than it could reliably deliver during droughts, the Sun reported.

Under the city's state permit application, a new treatment facility would take up to 500,000 gallons a day of treated water from the Westminster Wastewater Treatment Plant, put it through additional steps including reverse osmosis and ultraviolet disinfection, and release it into Cranberry Reservoir. The purified water would have to stay in the reservoir at least 180 days before reaching the city's drinking water plant. It would get there through an existing, unused raw water main, according to the loan agreements.

The city's fact sheet breaks the treatment into three steps. Membrane filtration strains out particles as small as one-thousandth the width of a human hair, including bacteria. Reverse osmosis then uses high-pressure pumps to force the water through a semi-permeable membrane that stops dissolved salts and other contaminants. Finally, ultraviolet light combined with hydrogen peroxide breaks apart any contaminants that remain.

Water reuse projects already operate elsewhere, including the Upper Occoquan Service Authority and the Hampton Roads Sanitation District in Virginia and Gwinnett and Clayton counties in Georgia, according to the fact sheet.

In a text message to Westminster Wire on Monday, Mayor Mona Becker stressed that the purified water would be treated to drinking water standards twice: once at the new facility, and again at the drinking water plant after its time in the reservoir. "When running, the PUREWater Westminster project will help protect the city now and in the future from drought conditions and water shortages," she said. She said the added supply would benefit residents both inside and outside city limits. The city's water system also serves properties beyond its borders, according to the 2024 Sun report.

Ordinance 2026-10 would authorize two loans from the Maryland Water Infrastructure Financing Administration, a state agency that lends federal and state money to local governments for water projects. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the loans Sept. 16, according to a memo to the council from the city's bond counsel, Lindsey Rader. The council introduced the ordinance Oct. 26 by a 4-0 vote; tonight's vote is on final adoption.

According to the memo and the ordinance:

The city would repay the loans first from water system revenue, including user fees and connection fees, the ordinance states. It also pledges the city's "full faith and credit" and taxing power as backing, and allows the state to withhold money it would otherwise send the city, including Westminster's share of state income tax revenue, if the city defaults.

Of the $16 million, $7 million would reimburse the city for project costs it has already paid or incurred, according to project budgets attached to the two loan agreements. The other $9 million would cover costs still to come, with the state releasing that money in stages through September 2027.

The loans are expected to close in December, and the agreements list February 2027 as the project's estimated completion date, a timeline Becker repeated Monday. Neither the ordinance nor the loan agreements state the project's total cost.

Asked whether the loans or the project's cost would change water rates, Becker said they would not. "That was something we were very careful to avoid," she said.

Becker called the state loans "really competitive to obtain" and said she was thrilled the city qualified.

The money comes with federal conditions because it flows through a state revolving fund capitalized in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Contractors must pay federal prevailing wages, and iron, steel and other construction materials must be made in the United States unless a waiver is granted. The city also must send the state audited financial statements each year and pay an annual administrative fee on the $9 million loan starting Aug. 1, 2027; the fee amount has not been set.

Under the city charter, the ordinance cannot be petitioned to referendum. It takes effect as soon as the mayor signs it.