Developers won’t be paying extra to clean up the Chesapeake Bay this year, but next year’s statewide financial fix likely will include a proposed fee on development designed to help stem the tide of pollution caused by growth.

“After we abate the deficit … then we can come back and look at all the ones [other sources] that designate funding,” said Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore City, who chairs the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.

Conway said the discussion about creating new fees would be more appropriate as part of broader negotiations about fixing the state’s ongoing budget deficit.

“We have a good road map for next year,” said House Environmental Matters Committee Chairwoman Maggie McIntosh, D-Baltimore City, the chief sponsor of the fund.

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Despite the widespread success of environmental bills during this year’s General Assembly session, including passage of the Clean Cars Act and a statewide storm-water management bill, House Speaker Michael Busch called the Green Fund “the most substantive environmental impact bill” of the year that failed to win approval.

The proposed Green Fund that passed the House of Delegates but died in the Senate would have charged residential development between $100 and $1,500, depending on the square footage of impervious surface created. Commercial projects would be charged $1 per square foot of impervious surface.

Impervious surface does not allow water to soak into the ground, and causes contaminated storm-water runoff.

Economically depressed counties and projects that are aggressively recruited by particular counties would be exempt from the Green Fund, and developers would be able to reduce the amount of the fee by using environmentally friendly construction techniques.

stracy@baltimoreexaminer.com