Marsh family: water treatment plant will keep the land open

Russell and Suzanne Marsh have leased their farmland to Tidewater Environmental Services for a regional wastewater treatment facility.

As public debate rages over the proposed Wandendale facility, the Marshes say preserving their 300 acres of farmland is better for the Inland Bays watershed than housing developments.

Tidewater Environmental Services and the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) say the facility, called Wandendale, would ultimately lead to fewer septic systems in the bays’ watershed. Critics counter that Tidewater has no authority to require residents to take advantage of its services. They say it will encourage increased development in the region and lead to more pollutants entering the Inland Bays.

The Marsh farm on Camp Arrowhead Road has been in the family for nearly 300 years. The family has leased the land to another area farmer since the late 1980s, Suzanne Marsh said. Tidewater’s 50-year lease will help the family preserve the cropland and the woods they still enjoy for hunting, her husband Russell said.

Tidewater’s proposed facility would use a tertiary treatment system, including ultraviolet light to kill bacteria. It will be able to handle up to 1.45 million gallons of wastewater per day. The company plans to dispose of treated wastewater through spray irrigation and rapid-infiltration basins (RIBs).

“We’ve always known we didn’t want to develop,” Russell Marsh said. His father’s interest in leasing land for treated wastewater disposal is what brought the Marshes around to the idea of leasing to Tidewater. “We did this to preserve the property as is, for farming and recreation,” he said.

Sitting in her grandfather’s house, Jen Pulcinella, Russell’s sister, said generations of her family have lived on the farm. “We’re not going to build something and move to Pennsylvania,” she said. “This is 300-plus acres that won’t be developed. We’re one of the only local farms to have not sold.”

Family wants to address concerns

Suzanne Marsh said the family has heard little from those opposed to the facility. “We’ve just had little comments from neighbors,” she said. The Marshes have held meetings with their neighbors. “There’s a little bit of worry about what it is. But, we’re approachable and we want to answer people’s questions. One of the main things I’ve heard over and over is whether it’ll lower property values,” she said.

Bruce Patrick, Tidewater Environmental Services vice president of operations, said that’s unlikely. He said within a year of a Middletown-Townsend spray irrigation facility beginning operations, half-million-dollar homes were built next to it.

The Marshes say they want to reassure their neighbors that the facility won’t harm property values or the environment; it won’t smell and it will be run by a company with a strong track record.

Suzanne Marsh said, “They’re in Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey and are a subdivision of Middlesex Water Company, which is more than 100 years old and a much bigger company.” The family has faith in Tidewater’s plans for Wandendale and its track record operating other facilities, she said. A facility such as Wandendale would operate under strict standards, she said.

Water-quality concerns

Critics of the proposal have said spray irrigation and rapid-infiltration basins will contribute nitrogen to groundwater that flows into the bays. Tidewater says the high level of treatment it has proposed for Wandendale will help protect water quality. The facility plans a tertiary-level treatment, which means water leaving the facility will meet safe drinking water quality standards, said Russell Marsh. The water will be as clean as when it came out of a well, or cleaner, Patrick said.

The nearby Bayfront treatment center handles wastewater from Bayfront, the Woods on Herring Creek and Herring Point developments. When the water completes full treatment, “It’s about as clear as you can get,” says plant operator, Kyle Betts, holding up a glass of the water. Wandendale would use the same type of treatment.

“The water we pull out of the ground is higher in nitrate than what we put back in,” he said.

The Bayfront plant also has five RIBs. They’re broad expanses of sand, surrounded by berms of soil covered with grass. Wide concrete pipes rise out of the middle of each bed, surrounded by a pile of gravel.

Water gently oozes out of a pipe, trickles across the sand and seeps in.

Many have criticized Tidewater’s plans to use RIBs, citing Delaware Geological Survey (DGS) reports that say the majority of the county is unsuited for these systems because the water table is so high.

But Patrick said those same maps show 5 percent to 10 percent of Sussex County is suitable for RIBs. One of the areas DGS maps show as suitable for an RIB is the 16-acre site Tidewater has proposed for an RIB at Wandendale. The other is the RIB site at Tidewater’s Bayfront center. In the 16 acres on the Marsh farm, the depth to groundwater is 22 feet, Patrick said.

Patrick said the company tests land that surveys show is suitable for RIBs by loading them heavily with water – more than the plant will ever ask the basins to hold.

“The 16-acre RIB area has been shown through our studies to hold more than 1.6 million gallons per day, not including the spray area,” Patrick said. Tests build in a large safety factor, he said. “We’ll own this facility for a long time. We want it to be safe and to protect the environment,” he said. Part of the testing included wet-season monitoring that went on through last year’s rainy fall and winter, said Patrick.

Tidewater initially proposed another RIB that would have been located near the headwaters of Love Creek, but the company scratched that plan. Relocating that particular RIB was one of the conditions of DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara’s order granting a Coastal Zone Act exemption for the facility.

The Sierra Club and a coalition of three other groups filed two separate appeals of the Coastal Zone Act permit. No hearing has been set on their appeals. The Citizens Advisory Committee to the Center for the Inland Bays passed a resolution Aug. 18, calling on DNREC to refuse future permits for Wandendale. Tidewater still needs construction and operating permits from DNREC.

Will Wandendale reduce septic use?

In his order allowing an exception to the Coastal Zone Act, O’Mara said a facility such as Wandendale would reduce the number of septic systems in the Inland Bays watershed.

Critics of the plan say Tidewater is a private company and there is nothing requiring homeowners to hook up to its services.

Patrick said some developers with projects planned in the area have already signed on with Tidewater. One is called Coastal Club, a 630-unit development that’s already approved and has inked a deal with Tidewater, he said.

Suzanne Marsh said, “What is the alternative to having a central treatment facility? The Inland Bays watershed would have a set of septic systems lined up one after another.”

Patrick said, “With the pollution control regulations, over the years people will be required to upgrade their septic systems. We can’t make them, but they may want to come to us. Folks have already chosen us.”

Tidewater already operates wastewater treatment facilities in the area, including Hart’s Landing and Bayfront, so a central system makes sense, Patrick said.

Patrick said wastewater facilities are regulated by the Delaware Public Service Commission. “They make us demonstrate we have the technology and managerial capabilities before we can serve an area,” he said.