When it comes to the Conowingo Dam, tensions have cooled between leaders in rural Maryland counties and state officials, as well as dam owner Constellation Energy.
That fact was on display Thursday at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference in Ocean City, when leaders from all three camps convened — this time to discuss a settlement agreement through which Constellation will pay $340 million for various environmental projects over the next several decades, in exchange for a crucial water quality certification from the state.
Initially, Republican officials in several rural Maryland jurisdictions, under the banner of the Clean Chesapeake Coalition, challenged that deal, as they were long aggrieved by sediment overflow events from the at-capacity dam, which is located in Cecil County. But state environmental officials persuaded them to drop their challenge…