Recent Letters to the Editor, regarding Rehoboth's proposed ocean outfall, caught my attention.
Since 2008, the State of Florida has been dismantling its existing outfalls, and banned any new outfalls, based on scientific evidence of the negative impact on the ocean.
Rehoboth Beach's permit applications for the controversial ocean outfall are based on its Final Environmental Impact Statement (Dec. 2012) submitted to DNREC. By reading the Alternative Analysis (from the DNREC website), the land application alternatives studied focused on either purchasing farmland for direct application or sending wastewater to the Wolfe Neck Regional Wastewater Facility.
2005 estimates found the purchase of farmland too costly, if the land could even be acquired. Various cost estimates regarding land application through WNRWF were approximately equal to purchasing farmland. Based on this, land application was rejected. However, DNREC has publicly recommended land application throughout the state, valuing the millions of gallons of fresh water returned to the land.
Nowhere does Rehoboth's EIS discuss any examination of alternatives with two companies who have come forward to offer land application solutions. Tidewater Utilities and Artesian both claim to be able to save millions of dollars for the City of Rehoboth, while avoiding returning wastewater to the Inland Bays watershed.
Additionally, Rehoboth's EIS rejected deep well injection, using 2005 analysis and cost estimations. Last fall, the Washington Post reported that in Hampton Roads, Virginia, a wastewater injection system is being designed, to be in full operation between 2020 and 2030. So another option rejected out-of-hand in 2005 has become technologically viable, with new research.
Before proceeding, we must demand that the City of Rehoboth responsibly update the economic and environmental alternatives to ocean outfall. It's 2017, and valid alternatives exist that were not considered over the past 12 years.
If you believe, as I do, that building an ocean outfall on Rehoboth's beach is an environmentally unsound idea, please contact the Rehoboth City Council and Mayor, asking that they reconsider alternatives to the ocean outfall. Ask for discussions with both Artesian and Tidewater Utilities, to develop genuine cost alternatives for land application. Then, the city should examine updated information on deep well injection. If it works for Hampton Roads, Va., perhaps deep well injections could work for Rehoboth Beach.
Before spending $58 million (2015 estimate), Rehoboth needs to do its homework and make certain current decisions are based on current options, at current costs!
Laura Hansen Reynolds
Rehoboth Beach
-
A letter to the editor expresses a reader's opinion and, as such, is not reflective of the editorial opinions of this newspaper.
To submit a letter to the editor for publishing, send an email to newsroom@capegazette.com. Letters must be signed and include a telephone number and address for verification. Please keep letters to 500 words or fewer. We reserve the right to edit for content and length. Letters should be responsive to issues addressed in the Cape Gazette rather than content from other publications or media. Only one letter per author will be published every 30 days. Letters restating information and opinions already offered by the same author will not be used. Letters must focus on issues of general, local concern, not personalities or specific businesses.
