The following letter was sent to the Rehoboth Beach mayor and commissioners, with a copy submitted to the Cape Gazette for publication.
I am hopeful that you will vote in favor of allowing Sussex County to use the excess capacity in the city’s ocean outfall pipe. When the project was first conceived, the mayor and commissioners voted for a pipe that had excess capacity for future growth. That decision was not made to provide the city with excess capacity, as we will not grow beyond the one square mile that is downtown Rehoboth Beach. That decision was made to accommodate the county. Yes, there will be some growth as the size of buildings may change, but not nearly enough to prohibit sharing the city’s outfall pipe. The outfall is the most environmentally sound solution, as the alternative of spray irrigation can not guarantee that excess nutrients from runoff will not end up in our bays. Particularly with the threat of sea level rise, the use of the ocean outfall is even more critical.
In watching your meetings, I have been disappointed in the attitude toward the county. They are not the enemy! They have been a valuable partner and have provided us with funding and favorable loans that we could get nowhere else. While many constituents want to punish the county for overdevelopment, it is Sussex County Council that determines the developmental direction of the county, not the county executive and county engineer. The county executive and county engineer are responsible for providing the most environmentally sound solutions in dealing with wastewater disposal. In addition, the county will provide the city with a bi-directional pipe that will allow the city to offload its effluent to a county storage facility if the city has a plant failure. We currently do not have this capability and will not if we do not take advantage of the offer by the county.
As a reminder, in a couple of years, the city sewer bills that are already very high will double, as there are upgrades to the sewer plant that need to be funded. The only way to do that is to have the users pay for it. Seven-plus million dollars will go a long way to offset these costs.
Trying to withhold the use of our excess capacity makes no sense. The county will simply select a different alternative, and the City of Rehoboth Beach will be the losers as this opportunity will not come up again.
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