Small Town News

Tidewater Utilities seeks new wastewater plant

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Coastal Zone hearing set May 19

Tidewater Environmental Services has proposed a new wastewater treatment facility that could treat up to 3 million gallons per day west of Lewes. One Cape Region resident calls it a blatant misuse of land that will threaten the Inland Bays.

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) is holding a public hearing at 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 19, on Tidewater Environmental Service's application to build the new facility, called Wanendale Regional Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Facility.

DNREC documents show Wanendale would treat wastewater then dispose of it in rapidinfiltration basins and with spray irrigation. The department says normally nitrogen and phosphorus are the biggest pollutants in wastewater. But, Tidewater proposes a treatment system that will remove most of those nutrients, the department said. "There will be no loss of, or impacts to, wetlands," said DNREC Secretary Collin O'Mara in a Secretary's Report. The facility will meet the requirements of the Inland Bays Pollution Control Strategy, says the report, which is posted on the department's website.

Rehoboth Beach resident Mable Granke said she has many concerns with the plan. "Everyone east of Route 30 should be concerned about this," she said. Granke said Tidewater plans to put rapid-infiltration beds to dis-pose of wastewater near the headwaters of Love Creek. She said if anything at all goes wrong, the basins could leak or leach toxins into the Inland Bays, which are supposed to be a protected state resource.

She said Tidewater's assertion that the new facility will take 1,300 septic systems out of the Inland Bays watershed is a farce. "This is a private company with no authority to make people hook up with them," she said. She also said the faculty's ability to support 10,000 dwelling units would result in more development and increased traffic on an already-stressed Route 24.

Bruce Patrick, Tidewater vice president of engineering, said not all land in Sussex is suitable for rapid-infiltration basins, but land on the Wanendale farm, near Route 24 and Camp Arrowhead Road, is very well suited for such use. He said such basins have been used for more than 100 years and are very effective if the soil has the right characteristics.

He said Tidewater plans to treat wastewater to a very high level, so treated water will meet drinking-water quality standards. That removes concern about nutrient pollution, he said. Patrick said Tidewater has used computer models to predict how the basins will function in the wet season, December through May, as well as during periods of heavy rain.

Ed Lewandowski, executive director for the Center for the Inland Bays, said center staff will review the application and see whether it is consistent or inconsistent with the center's conservation management plan.

He said the center's board and scientific and technical advisory committees have heard presentations showing rapid infiltration beds that seek to drain water into aquifers as quickly as possible are unsuitable for most of Sussex County. There are no rapid-infiltration basins in the Inland Bays watershed to provide precedent, Lewandowski said.

Other wastewater disposal methods, including spray irrigation, have been hampered by unusually wet weather in the past year, Lewandowski said.

The DNREC Secretary's Report also says Tidewater will offset clearing 10 acres of forest by planting trees and shrubs in new landscaping in buffer areas.

The facility would transfer biosolids, called sludge, to a disposal site outside the Coastal Zone. Granke said there is no evidence the storage site has adequate space. The treatment plant would serve new growth west of Lewes, DNREC documents show. The utility company must obtain permits from DNREC's groundwater section; DNREC could hold additional hearings for those permits.

The facility would be in the area of Route 24 and Camp Arrowhead Road. It will be built on four parcels of land, three of which are in the Coastal Zone. Sussex County Council gave Tidewater a conditional use permit for 320 acres for the facility in December 2008.

APPLICATI0N0NVIEW

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control's public hearing on Tidewater's application to build a wastewater treatment facility west of Lewes will be held at 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 19, at the Lewes Fire Company station on Route 24. The application is online at dnrec.delaware.gov/Admin/CZA/Pages/default.aspx. Comments are to be sent to KevinCoyle@state.de.us or Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, 89 Kings Highway, Dover, DE 19901, Attn. Kevin Coyle.





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