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The City of Lewes remains one of only a handful of municipalities in the state with no source-water protection ordinance.
But next month Lewes Mayor and Council is likely to implement a source-water protection ordinance that has drawn from similar ordinances, made use of advice from experts and benefited from Lewes Board of Public Works and Lewes Mayor and Council input.
“The board has worked on this for some time,” said Gary Stabley, Board of Public Works (BPW) president, during a Wednesday, Aug. 13 public hearing on the ordinance in which elected officials, BPW and city employees outnumbered the public.
The hearing lasted less than a half hour. The state required municipalities to have completed and enacted source-water ordinances by last November. But Harrington, Laurel, Lewes, Middletown and Wilmington – for a variety of reasons – haven’t.
Lewes’ source-water protection regulations would be an overlay on the city’s existing zoning ordinance. Its purpose is to protect city wellheads, excellent water recharge areas, and groundwater resources from contamination and pollution.
The ordinance makes clear the constraints and requirements for development in environmentally sensitive areas.
Lewes
It would apply to all new construction, redevelopment or expansion of existing buildings and new or expanded uses.
The ordinance also seeks to protect water resources through public education and cooperation, appropriate land-use regulations and existing city, state and county regulations.
Ken Mecham, BPW general manager, said Lewes’ ordinance is similar to that developed by Sussex County.
John Barndt, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) source-water protection program manager, said the Lewes ordinance meets state requirements.
He said DNREC would continue monitoring in-ground gasoline storage tanks throughout the state, including those in municipalities such as Lewes.
Mecham said the design of stormwater management systems and oversight of that area would remain the Sussex Conservation District’s responsibility.
DNREC hydrologist Doug Rambo in a recent interview said for Lewes, developing a source-water protection ordinance might have been trickier than for other municipalities.
He said nearly all land within Lewes city limits is classified as capable of providing good groundwater recharge.
Rambo said that translates to ensuring protection of a substantial amount of surface area.
Excellent recharge areas have conditions that allow the maximum quantity of water to move quickly into shallow aquifers.
Water also infiltrates in good, fair and poor recharge areas, but in comparison to excellent areas, not as much and not as quickly.
Mapping completed in 2002 by Delaware Geological Survey hydrologists found that about 8 percent of Sussex County’s land provides excellent recharge, about 40 percent good, 42 percent fair and 9 percent poor recharge.
Rambo said development of source-water protection ordinances can be complex, but when they work, what they accomplish is simple.
“The public wants clean, safe water. They want to know that when they turn on the tap they’re getting the best water possible,” he said.
And what some people think is Sussex County’s drinking water source – Pennsylvania mountain water that has flowed deep into the earth and slowly trickled its way to lower Delaware – isn’t.
“It’s rainfall,” Rambo said.
He said Sussex County gets about 41 inches of rain a year, and about 14 inches penetrate into the ground becoming groundwater. “That’s quite an appreciable amount of water,” Rambo said.
The complete source-water protection ordinance is on the city’s website at : www.ci.lewes.de.us.
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