Should homeowners pay the cleanup cost?

Third in a three-part series.

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The bottom line to fixing the county's damaged shorelines and waterways is green - and it doesn't grow on trees.

With a growing backlog of $400 million in restoration work needed, county officials and environmental interests are quietly talking about charging property owners an annual fee that would average about $60 per household.

But getting that done politically in a fiscally conservative county could be as big a task as stopping the tons of polluted sediment washing every year into the Chesapeake Bay.

The county currently spends about $11.5 million a year to repair the...