Georgetown, Del., June 3, 2008: Sussex County will use a proven method to meet the County’s future wastewater disposal needs for at least another generation.

County Council, at its Tuesday, June 3, 2008, meeting, directed the County’s Engineering Department to proceed with expanding spray irrigation as the preferred disposal method of treated wastewater from the Wolfe Neck Regional Wastewater Facility near Rehoboth Beach.

“The County Council’s decision today represents responsible planning on the part of County government for our wastewater needs today and for the next 20 years,” said County Administrator David B. Baker. “The Council believes this decision is the most practical and reasonable choice, one that makes use of our existing resources in adequately preparing for the sewer needs of the greater Lewes-Rehoboth Beach area in the years to come.”

Council’s decision means Sussex County will continue to use spray irrigation as the sole method of disposing treated wastewater at Wolfe Neck, which serves customers in the West Rehoboth Expansion of the Dewey Beach Sanitary Sewer District. In that process, treated wastewater is sprayed onto agricultural land or forestland. Crops and trees then utilize the nutrients and water.

Sussex County already employs the method at three of its four wastewater treatment facilities.

The Council’s decision caps several years of discussions between the County and the City of Rehoboth Beach on the possibility of a joint regional wastewater disposal plan, and which method might be most affordable and logistically feasible. Rehoboth Beach is under a federal deadline to remove its wastewater discharge from the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal by 2014.

Also under consideration was the possibility of disposing treated wastewater by way of an ocean outfall system, in which clean, environmentally safe water would have been discharged several miles out into the Atlantic Ocean.

Mr. Baker said the County welcomed the opportunity to potentially partner with the City of Rehoboth Beach, and Mr. Baker noted that joint disposal remains possible, depending on what decisions city leaders make in future. But the County needed to act now.

New sewer projects expected to begin in the coming year, such as Angola Neck, made it imperative that County government make a decision so planning could move forward, said County Engineer Michael Izzo. “This lets us know which path to take,” Mr. Izzo said.

Wolfe Neck RWF collects and treats a summertime average of 2 million gallons of wastewater each day from 17,000 sewer customers in the Lewes-Rehoboth Beach area. Customers are within County-governed sewer districts, independent of the cities of Lewes and Rehoboth.

The districts include the Dewey Beach Sanitary Sewer District, as well as the West Rehoboth Expansion of the Dewey Beach Sanitary Sewer District. Future customers in the yet-to-be designated North Planning Study Area – an area west of Del. Route 1, from Midway to Love Creek – also would be served by the expansion.

County officials estimate the cost of construction for the necessary infrastructure of sewer pipes and pump stations to expand spray irrigation for Wolf Neck and Inland Bays Regional Wastewater Facility will be approximately $103 million over the next 20 years. Mr. Baker noted expansion of spray irrigation would make use of 2,100 acres of land the County already owns near Inland Bays, outside Long Neck, and is intended for future wastewater disposal needs.

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