End legal battle over buffers

Sussex County recently notched a win in its buffer battle against the state when the buffer strategy defined in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control’s Inland Bays Pollution Control Strategy was declared illegal in Superior Court. Judge T. Henley Graves ruled DNREC does not have power to issue land-use regulations; the Legislature gave that power to county governments.

Now DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara says his department is leaning strongly toward appealing the decision.

At times it’s necessary to go to court to resolve a dispute, especially one that’s been a full decade in the making. That’s how long state officials have been trying to develop a strategy scientists, landowners, environmentalists and citizens can all agree on.

Still, an ongoing court saga pitting Sussex County against the state – a battle in which taxpayers pay the bills for both sides – is government at its worst.

While county and state officials argue, runoff pollutes the Inland Bays.

Delaware farmers have been hailed as among the most forward-looking in the nation for taking steps to limit runoff; O’Mara says few specific points of pollution remain in the Inland Bays watershed.

The buffer strategy is an efficient and cost-effective tool for limiting the nonpoint-source pollution that continues to reach the bays. Both New Castle and Kent counties require 100-foot buffers for tidal wetlands and waters.

Maryland requires a 200-foot buffer in the Critical Area along the Chesapeake Bay, while New Jersey requires 300-foot buffers.

If Sussex County doesn’t want DNREC to impose buffers, then county council should step up to the plate and adopt science-recommended buffer and vegetation requirements already in place in the rest of Delaware.

The strategy could include a special Inland Bays Board of Adjustment that could hear cases from landowners affected by the strategy and mitigate hardship losses.

If county and state officials would negotiate, all the money that’s going to be spent on legal battles could be used to compensate or assist landowners who stand to lose development rights on some of their land.

Fair settlement of the buffer problem benefits everyone, especially the Inland Bays.

Cape Gazette editorials are considered and written by members of the Cape Gazette editorial board which includes Dennis Forney, publisher; Trish Vernon, editor; Dave Frederick, sports editor; Laura Ritter, news editor; and Jen Ellingsworth, arts and entertainment editor.