SB0940 establishes a new Mobile Home Park Water Quality Testing Program within the Maryland Department of the Environment. The department must begin implementing the program by January 1, 2027, and must test an increasing share of mobile home parks each year until reaching all parks by January 1, 2031. The program requires resident outreach, multilingual communications, resident interviews about water concerns, and park-specific sampling plans that can test for primary and secondary drinking water standards, EPA maximum contaminant levels, water hardness, iron, calcium, total dissolved solids, and other chemicals the department believes may be present.
If testing identifies a water quality issue, the department must notify the park owner, local health and housing agencies, the municipality, the resident who requested testing, and the water supplier within 10 days. Park owners must then notify residents quickly, post results, provide translations and interpretation as needed, and submit a remediation plan within 120 days. The bill also requires the department to develop a statewide action plan by January 1, 2028 to improve water quality in mobile home parks, including outreach, infrastructure assessment, funding coordination, and a status report on testing. Enforcement tools include notices of violation, administrative penalties, and orders, with penalties up to $10,000 per violation and $5,000 per month for continuing violations.
The bill adds a new subtitle to the Environment Article governing mobile home park water quality testing and remediation, while also incorporating Real Property Article definitions for mobile homes, parks, park owners, and residents. It expands the Department of the Environment’s responsibilities by creating a phased testing program, requiring public notice and multilingual resident communications, mandating remediation planning, and authorizing enforcement actions against noncompliant park owners. It also expressly prohibits park owners from passing compliance costs on to residents and bars eviction or threats of eviction based on actions taken under the subtitle.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the legislature. It passed the Senate 42-0 and the House 115-15, and it was ultimately signed into law as Chapter 286. The strong margins suggest general agreement with the bill’s public health and consumer-protection goals, especially its focus on residents of mobile home parks who may face water quality problems and barriers to obtaining information or remediation.
The main policy tensions in the bill are between protecting residents and imposing obligations on park owners and the Department of the Environment. Park owners are required to provide notices, translations, interpretation, access for remediation, and compliance certifications, and they face significant administrative penalties for violations. The bill also prioritizes testing in parks with higher proportions of racial or ethnic minority residents and in areas with known geological contamination risks, which may reflect equity concerns but could also draw scrutiny over implementation capacity and prioritization. Another possible point of contention is the department’s ability to meet the phased testing deadlines and manage a waiting list if demand exceeds capacity.