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Relief available if Village Center prevails

July 22, 2016

Owing to the shallowness of three of the Lewes water wells and the nature of the aquifer, DNREC points out that such wells are highly vulnerable to contamination, particularly petroleum hydrocarbons intrusion. Pollutants from vehicle emissions will be discharged on the Village Center premises. These pollutants include some very dangerous carcinogenic and probably carcinogenic substances including benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

The developers have stated that they would pretreat contaminants at the center before release into the groundwater. Their pretreatment, as described at the July 14 hearing, is elementary and hardly failure proof. Moreover, no stormwater management system will prevent flooding due to extreme storms and hurricanes.

The release of such toxins could contaminate the Lewes well field. DNREC states in the PLUS Report that the area within the wellhead protected area should remain agricultural. DNREC has also said in the same report that development within the wellhead protected area should not exceed 50 percent impervious area regardless. This project will clearly exceed that requirement.

The developers claim that because of releases from Kings Highway traffic will not be treated, somehow they should be permitted to add to the risk by locating the center squarely within the wellhead protected area. They make a similar argument with respect to Cape Henlopen High School. They assert that the high school has a 375-square-fioot parking lot that lies within the wellhead protected area.  Of course, the Cape parking lot has much less use than the proposed center’s parking areas.  Once again, if there is a risk to the wellhead protected area by the Cape parking lot, that hardly means the risk should be exacerbated by locating the center virtually across the road from the Lewes wells.  

There is also a serious risk of air pollution caused by the center.  Extrapolating from numbers provided by DNREC for the previous 235,000-square-foot shopping center, there will be more than 10 tons of VOCs released each year in large part carcinogenic, probably carcinogenic, and otherwise health-threatening substances owing to mobile sources linked to the center.  This will occur close the high school.

As DNREC pointed out in the PLUS Report, the area is now in noncompliance for ozone levels and fine particulate matter. Fine particulate matter is particularly dangerous as one breathes these fine particles into one’s lungs. Studies have shown that lung cancer and other respiratory issues are serious risks.  One of the principal human activities that cause fine particulate releases is vehicular traffic. The center will add around 2,000 more vehicle trips per day. Add to that all the other vehicular trips along Kings Highway, projected to be possibly as high as 60,000 vehicle trips per day in the future by the city of Lewes’ traffic expert at the July 14 hearing, one can readily understand the gravity of the problem.  

DelDOT acknowledges in a letter that the proposed development was large enough to require a traffic impact study.  A traffic impact study is, of course, required by state law and the MOU between Sussex County and DelDOT.  DelDOT claims, however, that a traffic study done 10 years ago obviates the need to conduct one now.  Instead, DelDOT has done a much more limited traffic study called a TOA.  Moreover, despite requests to conduct this limited traffic study during the busy summer season, DelDOT, of course, ignored those requests and commenced the study in late August or thereafter.

If the project gets approved, which it should not, there is potentially relief available.  Despite the hurdles, within the last two years, the Barley Mill rezoning in New Castle County was overturned by the Court of Chancery because of a lack of a TIS prior to the vote on the rezoning.  This decision was upheld by the Delaware Supreme Court in a 5-0 vote.  

Rosemary and Joe Kelly
Lewes

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