Rehoboth ocean outfall may not be done deal after all
The tide may be turning in the debate over Rehoboth Beach's ocean outfall project.
Delaware's new environmental secretary has quietly been meeting with environmentalists, Sussex County wastewater treatment companies and Rehoboth Beach officials before he issues the final permits for a controversial ocean outfall project – a pipeline that would send treated sewer waste into the ocean about a mile east of where vacationers swim.
While Shawn Garvin said he has no intention of reopening the process, he does want a final look at all the options before he signs off on the permits.
This late-inning review has inspired hope for opponents of the outfall, a varied group that includes environmentalists, surfers, city residents and officials who operate private water and sewer utilities.
They say that a new examination would prove other options are more economical now and would not bring the negative connotation of discharging treated sewage off of the state's pristine, tourist-filled beaches and top-rated waters.
In Rehoboth, there is a growing faction that questions the wisdom of the project. The referendum to borrow money to pay for it passed by just 31 votes out of 1,243 cast.
The project is their answer to a court order to stop discharging treated sewer waste into the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal near the entrance to Rehoboth Bay.
At least one city commissioner plans to ask her fellow members to consider new information that could provide a less costly alternative.
Garvin's review comes after months of speculation that the state was poised to issue the permit. There was strong speculation at a public workshop and a public hearing last fall that the project "was a done deal."
But Gov. John Carney, who took office in January, asked David Small, then secretary of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, to hold off.
"Considering the change in administration, Governor Carney thought it made sense for the new DNREC secretary to review the permit application," spokesman Jonathan Starkey wrote in an email.
Two major concerns have been raised about the project. One is that it poses a perception problem for the city and state, both of which rely on millions of tourism dollars. The second is that piping all that fresh water into the ocean is a waste of a precious natural resource.
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Water shortages aren't just an issue out West. Florida, for instance, is abandoning previously constructed ocean outfalls to help recharge the ground water supply. In some areas, new home developments are plumbed with multiple pipes, including one for gray water – the relatively clean wastewater from sinks, baths and kitchen appliances – that can be used to irrigate lawns and gardens. That water doesn't include human waste, which can be a source of pathogens and bacteria.
Delaware, especially the southern part of the state, sits above vast pockets of fresh water.
With the outfall, "it's like washing 50 billion gallons of freshwater" into the ocean over the projected life of the treatment plant, said former DNREC Secretary Collin O'Mara, who now leads the National Wildlife Federation. "The working assumption is there is so much groundwater in southern Delaware," but the reality is that as the climate warms, more and more users, especially farmers, will be drawing water to irrigate crops and spread out the unpredictable patterns of rainfall that are expected.
And as sea level rises, O'Mara said, salt water intrusion into the state's groundwater could become a significant issue not just in resort communities but in areas throughout the broad, flat coastal plain.
"The states that are going to win the future are the ones that have abundant fresh water resources," he said.
Rehoboth is permitted to discharge 3.4 million gallons of treated sewage wastewater into Lewes & Rehoboth Canal near Rehoboth Bay, but a court order requires an end to canal discharge by June 2018. City officials have been working on an alternative for years and say engineers thoroughly reviewed all options before recommending the outfall project.
A land application option, popular among proponents of groundwater recharge, was ruled out because engineers said they could not find landowners nearby willing to sell land for a site. But that search happened during the height of the real estate boom and was not revisited after the crash in 2008 and succeeding drop in values.
The existing discharge pipe goes into a saltwater system, and some suggest that treated wastewater should be used to recharge groundwater and hold back saltwater intrusion.
The discharge to the canal contributes nitrogen and phosphorous to the Inland Bays. While they are essential for plant and animal growth and nourishment, excess amounts fuel the grow of algae. As algae die, they use up oxygen in the water.
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State officials ordered all wastewater discharges out of the bays, and Rehoboth will be the last to do so.
When Rehoboth officials completed their existing treatment plant in 1987, there was pressure from environmentalists and local residents to end canal discharge. Opponents of that plan pressed for land application – often called spray irrigation – of the treated waste. Similar to today, back then, city officials argued it would be too costly and there was no available land. The fight went to court, where the city prevailed.
Real cause for concern
Gerald J. Kauffman, director of the Water Resources Center at the University of Delaware, said the proposed ocean outfall would not use a large amount of water.
"This is small because in comparison, water supply in Sussex County is 108 mgd (million gallons a day) with 730 mgd in allocations. The land area of Sussex County is 976 square miles and at a 0.5 mgd per square mile recharge rate, that is 488 mgd of recharge to the aquifers from precipitation in a normal year," he said.
Kauffman said the outfall can be operated safely.
"The treated effluent will be diluted in the ocean far off the beach by a factor of 1 in 10,000," he said. "The wastewater treatment benefits greatly outweigh recharge concerns."
But it isn't current water use and supply that worry others.
Previous water availability and supply issues following three droughts – one in the late 1980s, another in the early 1990s and another in 1999 – prompted a comprehensive strategy in northern New Castle County to reduce water use through conservation, make interconnections between suppliers and increase capacity.
Wilmington's Hoopes Reservoir is still the major stockpile of water north of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. Newark has also added a reservoir, and Artesian, the Stanton-based water company, has pipelines that draw on wells from Hockessin to Townsend.
The northern Delaware supply network, most agree, is in a better position to stand up to drought conditions.
Dover is in the middle of a water supply controversy and the state has asked the Delaware Geological Society to study groundwater supply issues in Kent County over the next two years. Dover is in competition with area farmers for groundwater supplies on the east side of the city where it operates a shallow well field.
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A similar study will likely be done next for the coastal area of Sussex County, said John Barndt, state water supply manager.
"There are people thinking about this," he said of the potential threat of saltwater intrusion and water supply issues in the future.
Because the state is so small, the abundant groundwater in Sussex County could ultimately be pumped and piped to less water-rich parts of the state.
The thing is, said Townsend-area environmentalist David Carter, no one is thinking about the long-term impact of an ocean outfall and how future water supply needs may play out.
The perception issue
The city is seeking permits to build a milelong pipeline into the ocean that will discharge the treated waste into the Atlantic Ocean at the northern edge of the city's limits. Natural currents in the area move north toward Henlopen Acres, North Shores and Cape Henlopen State Park.
"One mistake, anytime in the next 20 years can be devastating to the tourism economy," Carter said. Tourism "is the one piece of the economy that has not been hit too hard."
Carter said Delaware's beaches aren't immune to competition. Following Superstorm Sandy, for instance, thousands of visitors discovered Delaware beaches when they were looking for an option to the badly damaged Jersey Shore. Some have continued to come.
From a competitive standpoint, a beach without an ocean outfall can be reassuring that visitors "will never have to swim in the water that we pee in," he said. "Rehoboth has really cornered the market for the whole family-friendly thing," and clean beaches are even more important to people with children.
Sussex County operates an ocean outfall just south of Bethany Beach. But the solid track record of Sussex County's outfall did little to ease concerns.
"Who wants to bathe in an ocean of human waste, treated or not?" asked James Paslawski. He urged state officials recently to consider a different method of disposal in Rehoboth Beach.
"I know the research says it's safe," said Keith Mosher, of Lewes, "but we know accidents happen."
O'Mara said that with the 24/7 news cycle and social media, people are much more aware of what is happening in "The Nation's Summer Capital."
Like Carter, O'Mara said any problem with an outfall would be instant news.
Ocean outfalls, he said, "are a relic of the past. … We know so much more now."
O'Mara has long been a skeptic of the project, and in his previous position as DNREC secretary, he asked his staff to look at alternatives. He was especially interested in the concept of using created wetlands to treat wastewater.
But his staff came back with concerns that the treated wastewater from the wetland would ultimately end up impacting Rehoboth Bay.
O'Mara left the permit decision to Small, his successor, but he later served on Carney's transition team.
Garvin confirmed that he had been meeting with people in the environmental community and with officials from companies who have proposed alternative options to the ocean outfall.
"I think we planted some seeds in Shawn's mind," said Dian C. Taylor, board chair, chief executive officer and president of Artesian Resources Corp. and its subsidiaries.
Yet, Taylor said she wasn't sure what to make of her meeting with Garvin. "He just wanted to see if there were any flaws in the process," she said.
Gerard Esposito, president of Tidewater Utilities, said he and his team also met with Garvin.
The two companies have offered alternate solutions to the ocean outfall. Both Esposito and Taylor said their companies can do the job at far less cost.
In a close referendum, city residents authorized Rehoboth to borrow $58 million to construct the outfall project.
Both Tidewater and Artesian have proposed piping the wastewater to facilities that already own or hold long-term leases for land application. Artesian's site is near Milton and is outside the Inland Bays watershed. The Tidewater property is at Angola Neck, within the watershed. Artesian officials said they expect to be able to install piping and a lagoon holding system for at least $20 million less that the outfall proposal.
Esposito said he believes the city never fully explored the land application alternative nor did they take a close look at outsourcing wastewater treatment to an established company.
The Delaware Nature Society also reached out to Garvin.
The nonprofit asked him to reconsider, given the more up-to-date information available on sea level rise and climate change impacts and improvements in wastewater technology since Rehoboth's consulting engineers undertook the review of options in 2005.
"I had concerns almost from the start," said Rehoboth City Commissioner Kathy McGuiness.
Still, McGuiness said, she voted to move forward with the outfall because "it's not like we had another choice."
Now, she said, she'd like city commissioners to at least review the alternatives that she is hearing about.
Back when the decision was made, commissioners were told land application was more expensive, but if that is no longer the case, McGuiness said she believes city officials should at least discuss it.
She said she is concerned the $53 million outfall cost estimate is from 2014 and is likely more expensive now.
Commissioner Stan Mills, who along with Mayor Sam Cooper and City Manager Sharon Lynn, met with Garvin, said he is still committed to the outfall.
At a public hearing last year, there was almost a 50-50 split among those who strongly supported the outfall and those who did not.
"Isn't it time," wrote Richard Baccino, a former assistant county engineer for New Castle County who retired to Bay Vista, "to move forward to actually construct improvements to the Rehoboth Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant and install the ocean outfall?"
He described the outfall as both environmentally and economically sound.
On the other side of the issue was Mario Rocha who wrote: "dilution is not the solution … if it can't be treated to go in Rehoboth Bay how can it go to the ocean?"
The standards for an ocean discharge, which are strict for bacteria, often do not include restrictions on nitrogen or phosphorous, the main pollutants of concern in the Inland Bays.
Many believe that no matter Garvin's permit decision, the outfall issue may be decided in court – just like the last time Rehoboth built a new treatment plant and opponents pressed for an option other than discharging into the canal.
The ocean outfall option "is a relic of the past," O'Mara said. When the city decided to move forward with the plan, they didn't have a better option, he said. But now they do.
He said he is concerned that many of the financial assumptions made in 2009 are out of date.
McGuiness said she, too, is worried.
She said that even though she's not a builder, she knows that prices typically go up.
"It's called reality," she said. "We need to be aware of our other options."
Contact Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.