At the Wednesday, Dec. 2 workshop, four commissioners – Mayor Sam Cooper and commissioners Lorraine Zellers, Willis Sargent and Pat Coluzzi – said they favored ocean outfall over land-based application. Commissioner Kathy McGuiness did not say she favored ocean outfall but she did not endorse land application either.

Commissioner Stan Mills said he was leaning toward land-based application but did not formally endorse a choice, and Commissioner Dennis Barbour said he wanted to wait until Dec. 14 to make his decision.

Outside the commissioners, the Delaware chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has been boisterous in its support of land application. Carol Everhart, president and CEO of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber also supports land application based on negative perception of ocean outfall affecting visitation.

The city is under a consent order to remove treated wastewater from the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal by Dec. 31, 2014.

The proposed costs for ocean outfall have been estimated at $30 million, with Rehoboth user costs of $680 per year.

The city also has the option of partnering with Sussex County on a spray-irrigation project, with combined costs estimated at $99 million to $112 million, with estimated Rehoboth user costs of $968 to $1,374 per year.

Commissioner opinions

Cooper said, “One of the big selling points of land application has been the recharge of the groundwater. Eastern Sussex County, we’re very fortunate, we live on top of a huge reservoir of freshwater. No one has ever really stated how much recharge is needed at the Inland Bays ”

He said land application would not make an iota of difference on where the city gets its water and instead would be overcharging the ground water. Cooper said in southern and western Sussex, the state and federal government spent millions of dollars digging tax ditches to lower the groundwater.

Cooper called land application not reuse but land dumping. He said reuse is substituting treated wastewater for water that would be drawn from the ground or surface water.

Cooper said storage of treated wastewater for land application in the winter was also a problem.

Cooper also addressed the idea that Rehoboth’s public perception would be damaged if it chooses ocean outfall. He said Cape May County in New Jersey has four treatment plants, with three using ocean outfalls. Lewes; Ocean City, Md.; and the South Coastal Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in Bethany Beach are also examples of ocean outfalls operating close to Rehoboth. Cooper said Ocean City has used ocean outfall for 40 years, has five times Rehoboth’s flow, 20 times the nitrogen and 20 times the phosphorus and is not as far into the ocean as Rehoboth has proposed.

“On both sides of us, there are discharges. I have not seen anything where because these communities use ocean outfall have they suffered in their tourism or gotten a black eye,” he said.

Cooper said land application can be effective in the right circumstances but is still an evolving science.

Mills said he did not have enough information to sway him either way in regard to the environment. He said he wanted to see an environmental impact study on both the alternatives by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

“My personal view, I guess, is that I would sway toward land-based application. That’s with my personal hat on. My commissioner view is giving more weight toward what’s best for the community. I feel like I have to vote without all the information that’s in an environmental impact study,” he said.

Sargent said there is little or no value for recharging the aquifer or for agriculture because water is not a scarce resource in the area. He said he did not think there were any significant environmental problems with ocean outfall.

“I think the cost differences are huge. If the cost difference were totally reversed, I’m not sure I would be very strongly feeling land application is right. I think here, the difference is so great and the arguments for land application are so weak that the cost truly dominates. If there are pluses and minuses, this becomes a super plus,” Sargent said.

Zellers said, “Ocean outfall is the only option that totally removes the nutrients and the phosphorus from the bay. That’s what our consent order is to do. I think our treatment plant already treats to the highest standard. I feel that we should maintain our control over that. We would maintain our control of the effluent going out there. I’m uncomfortable with the land application, relinquishing that control.”

Coluzzi said, “We do not have an issue with our aquifer, with our water supply. Consequently, I think the ocean outfall is the right way to go.”

Clarifying misconceptions

The workshop was an opportunity to debate and ask questions regarding both alternatives. McGuiness started the meeting by presenting a visual aid – four jars of water from four separate locations: Rehoboth Bay, the city’s wastewater treatment plant, the water fountain at the convention center and the ocean. The jars were an effort to show that the city is not dumping raw sewage.

“People need to realize, I don’t know what they are thinking when they are thinking sewage. But there’s a huge process with this plant. Wherever the water may end up going, on the land or redirecting the pipe from the plant to the ocean, it’s treated water,” McGuiness said.

Bob Stenger, supervisor of the city’s treatment plant, answered questions about the levels of treatment at the plant. Stenger said the plant is a tertiary treatment plant, meaning it involves biological and chemical treatment to reduce the nitrogen and phosphorus loads. He said there is also a screening process that captures any suspended solids, as well as bacteria.

Rip Copithorn, engineer for Stearns and Wheler, said the city’s wastewater treatment is above and beyond federal standards for nitrogen and phosphorus.

He said regardless of the alternative chosen, the plant will undergo upgrades, including a new filtration system, to ensure it lasts another 20 years. The city will maintain the level of treatment it uses now.

Mills asked Stenger about the potential for accidents resulting in raw wastewater getting into the ocean.

Stenger said generally accidents involving sewer systems come from combined systems for the sewer and the storm drain. Accidents have occurred in these systems when heavy rains overwhelm the system. Stenger said Rehoboth would not have that problem because the city has separate systems for stormwater and wastewater.

City Manager Greg Ferrese said Rehoboth does not permit stormwater to go into the sanitary system.

Stenger said there are always opportunities for accidents, but the biggest concern for Rehoboth would be a lengthy loss of power – a day or more – or a tank failure.

“If that happened, the water still has to pass through the plant. It’s still going to get screened,” Stenger said. “Although the treatment would not be the degree we currently have, it would still get treated.”

He said the plant also has a day-and-a-half worth of excess storage capacity, as well as backup power options.

Clean water council to discuss

Before the workshop meeting, several Rehoboth commissioners attended a meeting of the state’s Clean Water Advisory Council, which figures to be a primary funding agency for the project Rehoboth chooses. The council agreed to hold a workshop to discuss the Rehoboth project early next year.

Rehoboth must submit a notice of intent to the council by Saturday, Jan. 2, to be eligible for funding in 2010.