Sussex P&Z votes in favor of Artesian plant plans
Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended approval of plans for a sewer treatment facility near Milton. Sussex County Council will have the final vote on the proposal.
Artesian Wastewater Management Inc. has filed a conditional-use application to expand and amend conditions of a 2007 conditional use to allow for the addition of 52 acres for the treatment facility on the east side of Isaacs Road and southwest side of Reynolds Pond Road west of Milton.
At its March 25 meeting, the commission voted unanimously to support the application.
Sussex County Council will have a public hearing on the application at 10 a.m., Tuesday, April 13, in the Carter Partnership Center on the Delaware Technical Community College campus in Georgetown.
The Southern Regional Recharge Facility would provide central sewage treatment to a 94-square-mile area extending north and east of Milton, south to the Long Neck area and west to the Delaware Coastal Airport and Business Park near Georgetown.
Artesian officials said they hope to have the plant operational by summer 2022. The plant would have a capacity of 625,000 gallons per day.
The plant is part of a phased plan for the 127-acre site. Phase 1, approved a year ago, included a 90-million-gallon storage lagoon and spray-irrigation acreage for Allen Harim Foods' pretreated wastewater. A pipeline from the poultry processing plant in Harbeson to the spray-irrigation fields has already been installed. The system is scheduled to go online as soon as Allen Harim’s operational permit is approved by the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control for 1.5 million gallons per day.
Phase 2 includes an on-site wastewater treatment facility with a capacity of 625,000 gallons per day.
When all phases are complete, the facility will have a permitted capacity of 2.25 million gallons per day.
Effluent will be spray applied to more than 1,700 acres of farm fields and woodlands.
