Barely a month after several Eastern Shore counties challenged Maryland and Constellation Energy’s $340 million deal to relicense the Conowingo Dam, three out of four objecting jurisdictions have backed out of the appeal.

Dorchester County voted last week to withdraw its challenge to a state environmental certification for the dam, while the attorney leading the coalition spearheading the challenge said two other counties, Queen Anne’s and Kent, also backed out.

That leaves only Cecil County, the northern Maryland county at the mouth of the Susquehanna River and Conowingo Dam, holding the line.

Asked about the withdrawals, Charles D. “Chip” MacLeod, the attorney for the Clean Chesapeake Coalition that filed the appeal, pointed to a campaign by Maryland environmental officials to dissuade counties from their challenge.

“Lots of pressure being applied to local officials who dared to slow the process and bring attention to a bad deal for the Bay and Marylanders,” MacLeod said in an email Friday.

Cecil County officials remain committed to the challenge “at this stage,” MacLeod said.

Maryland Department of the Environment officials have toured the Eastern Shore in recent weeks in an effort to convince the Republican-led four counties to reconsider. State officials met with county leaders at a recent Maryland Association of Counties summit and have presented at county council meetings in both Cecil and Dorchester counties to make their case for the downstream benefits of the settlement deal.

The effort appears to have paid off.

Officials on the Dorchester County Council announced last week that they voted to withdraw from the appeal following conversations with state regulators.

Council President Lenny Pfeffer said MDE expressed concerns that Dorchester’s opposition could derail relicensing of the dam and jeopardize hundreds of millions of dollars in environmental improvements for the Chesapeake Bay.

“We’re like, ‘Well, wait a minute,’” Pfeffer said. “We want the best for the bang, and we don’t want to be the ones responsible for holding up some cleanup for the Bay.”

Pfeffer, a Republican, said Dorchester County had pursued the appeal in hopes of ensuring its voice in deliberations with Constellation, but it became clear to them that the deal was already sealed.

MDE offered all of the counties that withdraw from the appeal representation on a new committee advising on implementation of the settlement funds.

Gov. Wes Moore stood alongside the CEO of Constellation, which owns Conowingo, and leading environmentalists this October to announce a long-awaited deal to relicense the dam. Under the agreement, Maryland issued a water quality certification for the dam and Constellation pledged $341 million in environmental improvements for the Chesapeake Bay, including debris removal, improved fish passage infrastructure and new Susquehanna River mussel hatchery.

The settlement is meant to pave the way for relicensing the nearly century-old dam for another 50 years, but its terms hinge on approval by federal energy regulators.

The deal also includes nearly $19 million to study dredging a massive build-up of sediment behind Conowingo. Dredging has long been a priority for environmental groups, since heavy rains tend to drive bursts of silt and nutrient pollution through the dam’s flood gates and into the bay.

MacLeod and the Eastern Shore counties, though, argued that the settlement didn’t go far enough to ensure dredging. In their appeal, filed before state and federal regulators, MacLeod’s group also argued that the state’s closed-door negotiations with Constellation and environmental groups violated state law.

Cecil County, which wraps around the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay and borders the lower Susquehanna River, can bear the brunt of damages when storms push sediment through Conowingo Dam.

County spokesperson Robert Royster said in a statement that Cecil stands by the appeal and remains “deeply concerned” about its exclusion from settlement negotiations.

“This settlement affects us in ways that run very deep,” he said. “We are extremely troubled by both the lack of transparency in these negotiations and the pressure being applied by the state to accept the agreement before we fully understand its implications and the long-term consequences it may impose.”

Ron Fithian, the chairman of the Clean Chesapeake Coalition and president of the Kent County Council, confirmed in an email that his county withdrew from the appeal.

Queen Anne’s County officials did not respond to an email Monday.

Since its last license lapsed in 2014, Conowingo Dam has operated in limbo, and securing a new license has not been easy.

After earlier efforts encountered legal troubles, former Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration reached a settlement requiring the dam’s operators to invest over $200 million into environmental projects. But environmental groups sued, and a federal court voided that deal in 2022, the same year Moore was elected governor.

The Moore administration and environmental advocates have touted their agreement as a big improvement over the scrapped Hogan deal.

Last week, MDE Deputy Secretary Adam Ortiz presented the new settlement’s terms to Cecil County leaders. The previous deal reached under Hogan included no provisions for dredging, and Ortiz argued that this agreement gets the state closer to a dredged Conowingo Reservoir than ever before.

He told Cecil officials that the millions included for pre-dredging work could help the state secure federal appropriations for the huge operation.

In an interview Monday, Ortiz expressed optimism about the state’s conversations with the counties.

“We’re anxious to get out of the courts and get to work,” he said. “We’re hoping that we can move forward with all of the counties in a thoughtful way.”