Who Are We?
Founded in 1973, the Sugarloaf Citizens’ Association (SCA) is a nonprofit, voluntary organization. Our primary purpose is to protect and preserve the Ag Reserve— the 93,000 acres of northern and western Montgomery County zoned in the 1980s for farming, open space, land conservation, and rural life..
We promote and advocate for sound environmental stewardship in the Ag Reserve and the county as a whole, as defined in the Ag Reserve Master Plan. And we monitor laws and regulations that relate to the Ag Reserve and environmental policy.
Join, donate, or renew your membership in SCA! Just click here!
SCA Board Meeting
Monday March 6, 7:30pm
Members welcome, email for information
Watch this video!
When we work together, there's so much the Ag Reserve can to help make our County more energy independent, more food secure and more climate resilient. Let's be #SmartonSolar!
A short video about why it's so important to protect class 2 soils and conditional use.
The Draft Climate Action Plan
The county has released its Draft Climate Action Plan. We are very pleased to see this document. It will help inform SCA's work going forward.
We look for and welcome your suggestions, concerns and questions about what's going on in the Ag Reserve. Please email us here.
The Agricultural Reserve is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. This map shows where Montgomery County has designated 93,000 acres to the preservation of farmland. See a larger version here.
See "Growing Legacy,” a terrific portrait of the Ag Reserve, produced by Montgomery Countryside Alliance. Here’s the link to the 30 minute film. MCA has a synopsis here.
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Protect the Sugarloaf Mountain Area
The Frederick County Council last fall passed a once-in-a-generation land-use plan for the Sugarloaf Mountain area. But, amid contentious debate, the Council in late December rejected the zoning regulations that would implement and enforce the plan. Those regulations are now being considered anew by Frederick County’s Planning Commission.
SCA continues to support protecting this rural, farming, and recreation area from commercial and dense housing development.
Read more >>
Probing Needed for Toxic Chemicals in the Ag Reserve
A class of toxic chemicals called PFAS can contaminate water, farmland, wells, and crops. These chemicals have been linked to cancer and other diseases and do not break down in the environment. An organization called PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) is leading an effort to probe whether PFAS chemicals are present—and if so, to what degree—on Ag Reserve land and in water sources.
Testing to date has yielded concerning results. Levels of several forms of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances of which there are thousands) are substantially higher than EPA recommended quantities in drinking water in Poolesville. As a result, the town closed two of its 12 wells. These concerning results also led SCA and Montgomery Countryside Alliance (MCA) to join PEER in January in calling on Montgomery County officials to prohibit the use of certain PFAS-containing fertilizers, called biosolids, on county agricultural land—to prevent further contamination of ground and surface waters.
A New Era for the Dickerson Power Plant Property
Terra Energy, a subsidiary of Terra Innovations Inc., recently bought 740 acres at the site of the Dickerson power plant and waste incinerator. About two-thirds of that land is in the Ag Reserve.
The Fiber Optic “QLoop” Project in Montgomery and Frederick Counties
A large-scale data center project is underway in Montgomery and Frederick Counties. It involves: (a) a data center “campus” located on 2,100 acres of existing industrial land on the outskirts of Frederick, and (b) 43 miles of underground fiber optic cables crossing beneath the Potomac River in two locations and beneath the Monocacy River in one location. The Monocacy River location is at the border of Dickerson and Frederick County in an area off Mouth of Monocacy Road.
The underground and under-river cables (called the QLoop) will connect the new Frederick data center with several existing data centers in Virginia (collectively called the “Ashburn Internet ecosystem”). The companies behind the project are Quantum Loophole, based in Austin, TX, and Aligned Data Centers, based in Plano, TX. You can read all about them and the project at www.quantumloophole.com and https://www.aligneddc.com.
Better Waste Management in Montgomery County
SCA has been working with the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and County Executive Marc Elrich for five years to help develop a “zero waste”—or at least “much-less-waste”—plan for the county. This effort encompasses a wide range of initiatives—from improved recycling to wider access to composting food scraps to piloting a project that would require residents to pay extra for tossing garbage that exceeds a certain per-household weight limit. The county is already testing some of these initiatives, or working on plans to do so.
The less-waste effort also includes shuttering the Dickerson trash incinerator, which is one of only two in Maryland. The incinerator is old, a major polluter and has operated inefficiently for years. In addition, it requires sending some 200,000 tons of toxic ash annually to a majority black community outside of Richmond, Va. Other states and communities have closed down incinerators that are as old and of the same type as the one in Dickerson.
Supporting Regenerative Agriculture
SCA is a strong advocate for regenerative agriculture (regen ag). What is that? It’s an umbrella term referring to an array of agricultural management and production practices that aim to: improve soil; sustain arable farmland; sequester carbon; increase biodiversity; provide healthy forage for farm animals; reduce the use of agricultural chemicals; and promote the growth of high-quality food.
Regen ag can also help increase food security and climate resiliency amid the challenges of climate change. Changing weather patterns and extreme weather events are expected to put many food-growing areas in the U.S. at risk. Improved soils hold water better, in flood and drought. Increasing the amount of food grown locally will help ensure adequate crop growth and food supply. And it will protect against supply chain disruptions, such as those the occurred during the pandemic. Regen ag can also increase the sequestration of carbon in soils.
Enhancing Solar Energy
In 2020-2021 SCA helped shape a Montgomery County zoning ordinance that allows farmers and landowners in the Ag Reserve— working with solar developers—to place ground-based solar arrays on small portions their land if those arrays do not take prime arable land out of use.
Such solar arrays must meet certain requirements and be approved by county regulators. For now, the total acreage of solar arrays in the Ag Reserve is limited to 1,800 acres. The rules governing the initiative protect forests and environmentally sensitive areas.
Sugarloaf Citizens Association, Inc. Linden Farm 20900 Martinsburg Road P.O. Box 218 Dickerson, MD 20842 301-349-4889 info@sugarloafcitizens.org
