SPI Pharma has submitted an application to the state seeking permission to replace electrical conduit and conductors running from the company’s motor control center in the shoreline dune to the end of the fishing pier in Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes.

The Division of Watershed Stewardship issued a public notice June 17.

SPI Pharma is located on Cape Henlopen Drive, just before the entrance to Cape Henlopen State Park. The company produces calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide and aluminum hydroxide, which are used in the manufacture of antacid medication. The company opened its Lewes facility in 1969.

Brian Marinaro, SPI Pharma CMO/EMO, described the project in a letter submitted to the state that was included with the notice.

The current conduit and conductor system was installed in 2009 and is related to the company’s wastewater outfall that is located in Delaware Bay, about 1,425 feet offshore. The conduit runs underground in the dune area and underneath the decking of the fishing pier. The control center is about 150 feet north of the fishing pier on a concrete pad it shares with two of the park's electrical transformers.

The scope of the project includes directionally boring underground a pair of 4-inch PVC conduits from the control center to the closest point beneath the pier; running two 4-inch conduits beneath the pier and within approximately 50 feet of the end of the pier; pulling electrical conductors through the conduit along their entire length; providing new electrical service to SPI Pharma's existing pumps that are underneath the pier; demolishing the existing two runs of 2-inch electrical conduit beneath the pier; abandoning the existing underground 2-inch conduits from the control center to the pier in order to minimize the disturbance of the dune environment; and replanting dune grass on any disturbed areas.

The project is expected to take four to eight weeks to complete, depending on weather, and the company would like to have it completed in the next three to nine months. SPI Pharma will use the overflow parking lot near the fishing pier as a staging area.

Comments are due to the Division of Watershed Stewardship by Thursday, July 2. For more information or to submit a comment, contact Jennifer Pongratz, environmental scientist with the state's Coastal Construction Regulatory Program, at 302-608-5500 or Jennifer.Pongratz@delaware.gov.