The city commissioners plan to discuss the matter one final time at the Friday, Dec. 4 workshop meeting before making the decision.

The Dec. 18 date for the decision is tentative because Commissioner Kathy McGuiness has said she would not be able to attend on that date. Mayor Sam Cooper said it was his desire that all the commissioners be present for the decision.

The city is under a consent order to have all wastewater discharge out of the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal by Dec. 31, 2014.

At the Friday, Nov. 6 commissioners’ workshop, county engineer Mike Izzo officially presented the latest county/city report on a joint solution.

While the report was first given to the commissioners in late October, Izzo presented finalized numbers estimating that a joint land application project would cost from $99 million to $112 million. The county presented five land application options, four of which have estimated total capital costs of $99 million. The Rehoboth user rates for land application are estimated to be $1,010 to $1,430 per year.

The city’s share of these four options ranges from $32 million to $50 million, depending on whether the city would pump either raw or treated wastewater to the county’s Wolfe Neck Regional Wastewater Facility with disposal at either the Inland Bays Regional Wastewater Facility or to a private provider such as Tidewater Utilities Inc. or Artesian Water Company.

With a private provider, the city’s capital costs would be either $2.1 million (for raw wastewater) or $1.4 million (for treated effluent). However, in both cases, the city’s annual operating and maintenance costs would be over $3 million.

Citizens speak out

The public had its chance to address the issue at a hearing held at a packed Rehoboth fire hall Saturday, Nov. 7. The atmosphere in the room was charged yet civil, with proponents of spray irrigation and ocean outfall passionately arguing their cases.

The hearing started with a brief update from engineer Rip Copithorn of Stearns and Wheler, the engineering firm that put together the city’s original 2005 report laying out the city’s alternatives. Besides the county figures presented by Izzo Nov. 6, Copithorn gave the most up-to-date figures on ocean outfall:

$30 million in total costs
$640 per year in user costs
$2.4 million in combined capital cost and operating and maintenance costs.

Generally speaking, the leading champions of land application were the large contingent of members from the Delaware chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, while local residents seemed to favor ocean outfall. A sampling from some of the 24 speakers follows.

Former commissioner Patti Shreeve was the first speaker.
“It’s a complicated issue. There are no perfect solutions,” she said.

Boogey Criswell of Frankford said regarding ocean outfall, “We have an on-shore wind flow almost constantly. Here, every afternoon, it flows off the sea onto the beach. We know these effluents are going to float and they’re going to float up to the beach. It’s like standing down-range on a firing range. And they’re using a machine gun. When it comes to land application, it looks to me like the extra $370-some dollars you’re going to pay to put it on the land and not in the ocean is well worth the money.”

Russ Merritt of Milton, a member of the Surfriders, said, “At a time where we’re looking to wind energy and alternative energy and a great amount of public focus is on reining in our habits, this would be a fantastic time to be at the forefront of our community. This is a decision that will certainly influence the way Rehoboth is viewed for a good time to come.”

Summer Martin of 87 Henlopen Ave., speaking on behalf of her parents Guy and Nancy Martin, said, “The engineering and consultants studies seem clear: the ocean outfall method is by far the least expensive for the citizens of Rehoboth Beach, both now and in the future. It is also clear that an ocean outfall system will also provide the city with the greatest amount of independent management and cost control going forward. These two factors alone are very powerful, but they would still not convince me that ocean outfall is the final answer if it was not environmentally responsible as well. It is the superior option.”

Mark Carter of Milford and the Surfriders said, “The guys and girls that are out there in the water year-round, we’re the ones that are worried about wastewater, treated or not, coming back up to us. The other thing is with wastewater – it’s the perception. That’s going to turn tourism away. The other thing, that wastewater has to go through that pipe, something’s got to get it there.

“What’s that going to be? Our drinking water, fresh water, things like that. That is not reusing, that is wasting. That’s wastewater to me.”

Stan Heuisler of 81 Henlopen Ave. said, “If we pay for our own, we have control of our own and we have control of the costs. It seems to me one of the questions about spray irrigation is that we are not masters of our own destiny, even though we’re paying for it. There are questions about the benefits of spray irrigation in a region that has an abnormally high water table.” Libby Stiff of 1007 Scarborough Ave. said, “I know what I have read, but what I have discerned is that it’s six in one, a half-dozen in the other and the financial aspect to the individual retirees and the residents of the city of Rehoboth are what you guys [the commissioners] are paid to protect.”

Private providers step up

While both Artesian and Tidewater have not been involved in recent wastewater discussions at city meetings, both have stepped forward within the last week. At the Nov. 7 public hearing, Tidewater President Gerry Esposito said his company would offer its services to the city if requested.

Artesian Senior Vice President of Operations John Thaeder sent a letter to the commissioners, the county council and representatives from the Center for the Inland Bays, the state Clean Water Advisory Council and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

In his letter, Thaeder said the county’s numbers have been overinflated and are not consistent with rates the company has previously discussed with the city and county. Thaeder said Artesian proposed a total cost of $45 million, with the city paying $16.8 million and the county paying $13.1 million. The user rate for pumping raw wastewater to Wolfe Neck with disposal at land Artesian has outside Milton would be $705 a year, Thaeder said.

“The report appears to sway the reader to believe that the ocean outfall option is the less expensive alternate, since the estimate to build the outfall alternative has gone down from the previous estimate by Stearns and Wheler, while the estimate to use spray irrigation by private provider has gone up,” Thaeder wrote.

Izzo said, “Artesian has submitted a letter. And it’s kind of frustrating to me because I had met with them personally and they had promised to give us comments, and this was back in September.

“I didn’t receive the comments for two weeks. I called them on a Thursday and they told me they were meeting on Monday and I would have comments thereafter,

“I never received those comments. To get a letter at the 11 th hour is kind of frustrating to me.”

Joint outfall possibly back on?

One option that was thought to be off the table but may be back on is a joint ocean outfall between the city and the county.

While the county council voted last year not to pursue a joint outfall, the latest report includes two alternatives that would involve the city and county pumping to a common outfall, with the county continuing to use the land it owns at the Inland Bays facility.

The report proposed two joint outfall alternatives. Both would cost a total of $87 million, the only difference being whether the disposal capacity is built to year 2030 levels – which would increase the city’s share by $4 million – or to maximum capacity, increasing the county’s share by $4 million.

Neither Izzo, nor the city commissioners seemed overly optimistic about that option.

Commissioner Stan Mills said, “My perception is this has really been done for county council to look at, because we cannot choose this without the county.”

Izzo said if the city wanted to pursue a joint outfall, it would need to talk to county council President Vance Phillips, who has been a supporter of land application.

Still, the city is looking to move forward to get a decision made by the end of the year.

Cooper said, “I don’t want to wait for the county to go through this again. I think we need to make our decision and I think there will be time after for the county to react to that.”

“I think both parties, Sussex County and Rehoboth, we’re both staring at each other waiting for one of the other to react,” Izzo said. ‘This whole process is endlessly complex and trying to get a handle and give you guys some guidance to make an informed decision is what we tried to do.”

The city is holding the record open until 4:30 p.m., Monday, Nov. 16, for citizens to provide written comments. Citizens can submit their comments at the Rehoboth building and licensing office, 306 Rehoboth Ave.