|  Author | Announcement: Rehoboth Forecast Might Include Poo (Read 442 times) |
julie
Exec Board
member is offline
![[avatar]](http://www.com-vis.com/imagelinks/jolieface.jpg)
No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
![[aim]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/aim.gif)
Joined: Nov 2005
Gender: Female 
Posts: 414
Location: Washington, DC
|  | Rehoboth Forecast Might Include Poo
« Thread Started on May 7, 2009, 3:05pm » | |
Rehoboth Beach's town council is considering installing an ocean outfall to deal with its wastewater problems. In other words, they are considering pumping partially treated sewage into the ocean.
Outfalls are an archaic wastewater management method, and there are several much safer and more responsible options--like land-based application, where the effluent is sprayed onto farmland and other open areas where the water can be filtered by soil and returned to the groundwater supply. Many states are in fact shutting off their old outfall pipes because they realize what damage it causes to the marine environment.
Let the Rehoboth town leaders know you oppose the outfall. Click here to send them an e-mail, and come to our chapter meeting on May 12 to learn more about what you can do.
| |
|
julie
Exec Board
member is offline
No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
Joined: Nov 2005
Gender: Female
Posts: 414
Location: Washington, DC
| | Re: Rehoboth Forecast Might Include Poo
« Reply #1 on Jul 24, 2009, 3:41pm » | |
Just to update y'all...
The Rehoboth town council has been hearing from both sides, but clearly far more from those who support an outfall, and thus that is how they are still leaning. They have asked for estimates and a study on the land-based application, so they expect to resume discussion toward the end of the year.
There has also been mention of another public hearing. As soon as we get details about that, we'll post them here (and everywhere else).
Thanks to those who have called, e-mailed, and helped with research thus far!
| |
|
julie
Exec Board
member is offline
No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
Joined: Nov 2005
Gender: Female
Posts: 414
Location: Washington, DC
| |
julie
Exec Board
member is offline
No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
Joined: Nov 2005
Gender: Female
Posts: 414
Location: Washington, DC
| | Re: Rehoboth Forecast Might Include Poo
« Reply #3 on Nov 13, 2009, 1:56pm » | |
Delaware Chapter is getting a ton of press on this. The public comment is still open--final workshop meeting on the issue is scheduled for Dec 4 and a vote tentatively scheduled for Dec 18.
http://www.capegazette.com/storiescurrent/200911/reho-sewer13.html
Excerpt:
Citizens speak out
The public had its chance to address the issue at a hearing held at a packed Rehoboth fire hall Saturday, Nov. 7. The atmosphere in the room was charged yet civil, with proponents of spray irrigation and ocean outfall passionately arguing their cases.
The hearing started with a brief update from engineer Rip Copithorn of Stearns and Wheler, the engineering firm that put together the city’s original 2005 report laying out the city’s alternatives. Besides the county figures presented by Izzo Nov. 6, Copithorn gave the most up-to-date figures on ocean outfall:
$30 million in total costs
$640 per year in user costs
$2.4 million in combined capital cost and operating and maintenance costs.
Generally speaking, the leading champions of land application were the large contingent of members from the Delaware chapter of the Surfrider Foundation, while local residents seemed to favor ocean outfall. A sampling from some of the 24 speakers follows.
Former commissioner Patti Shreeve was the first speaker.
“It’s a complicated issue. There are no perfect solutions,” she said.
Boogey Criswell of Frankford said regarding ocean outfall, “We have an on-shore wind flow almost constantly. Here, every afternoon, it flows off the sea onto the beach. We know these effluents are going to float and they’re going to float up to the beach. It’s like standing down-range on a firing range. And they’re using a machine gun. When it comes to land application, it looks to me like the extra $370-some dollars you’re going to pay to put it on the land and not in the ocean is well worth the money.”
Russ Merritt of Milton, a member of the Surfriders, said, “At a time where we’re looking to wind energy and alternative energy and a great amount of public focus is on reining in our habits, this would be a fantastic time to be at the forefront of our community. This is a decision that will certainly influence the way Rehoboth is viewed for a good time to come.”
Summer Martin of 87 Henlopen Ave., speaking on behalf of her parents Guy and Nancy Martin, said, “The engineering and consultants studies seem clear: the ocean outfall method is by far the least expensive for the citizens of Rehoboth Beach, both now and in the future. It is also clear that an ocean outfall system will also provide the city with the greatest amount of independent management and cost control going forward. These two factors alone are very powerful, but they would still not convince me that ocean outfall is the final answer if it was not environmentally responsible as well. It is the superior option.”
Mark Carter of Milford and the Surfriders said, “The guys and girls that are out there in the water year-round, we’re the ones that are worried about wastewater, treated or not, coming back up to us. The other thing is with wastewater – it’s the perception. That’s going to turn tourism away. The other thing, that wastewater has to go through that pipe, something’s got to get it there.
“What’s that going to be? Our drinking water, fresh water, things like that. That is not reusing, that is wasting. That’s wastewater to me.”
Stan Heuisler of 81 Henlopen Ave. said, “If we pay for our own, we have control of our own and we have control of the costs. It seems to me one of the questions about spray irrigation is that we are not masters of our own destiny, even though we’re paying for it. There are questions about the benefits of spray irrigation in a region that has an abnormally high water table.” Libby Stiff of 1007 Scarborough Ave. said, “I know what I have read, but what I have discerned is that it’s six in one, a half-dozen in the other and the financial aspect to the individual retirees and the residents of the city of Rehoboth are what you guys [the commissioners] are paid to protect.”
| |
|
julie
Exec Board
member is offline
No one can do everything. Everyone can do something.
Joined: Nov 2005
Gender: Female
Posts: 414
Location: Washington, DC
| | Re: Rehoboth Forecast Might Include Poo
« Reply #4 on Dec 10, 2009, 1:29pm » | |
The vote is next Monday, December 14.
One more story:
http://www.capegazette.com/storiescurrent/200912/reho-wastewater04.html
The Rehoboth Beach commissioners are expected to select an alternate wastewater disposal method Monday, Dec. 14, and if the commissioners’ statements are any indication, ocean outfall appears to be the choice.
At the Wednesday, Dec. 2 workshop, four commissioners – Mayor Sam Cooper and commissioners Lorraine Zellers, Willis Sargent and Pat Coluzzi – said they favored ocean outfall over land-based application. Commissioner Kathy McGuiness did not say she favored ocean outfall but she did not endorse land application either.
Commissioner Stan Mills said he was leaning toward land-based application but did not formally endorse a choice, and Commissioner Dennis Barbour said he wanted to wait until Dec. 14 to make his decision.
Outside the commissioners, the Delaware chapter of the Surfrider Foundation has been boisterous in its support of land application. Carol Everhart, president and CEO of the Rehoboth Beach-Dewey Beach Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber also supports land application based on negative perception of ocean outfall affecting visitation.
...
| |
| |
|
![[Home]](http://www.com-vis.com/email/dcsr/nav_home.gif)
![[Help]](http://www.com-vis.com/email/dcsr/nav_help.gif)
![[Search]](http://www.com-vis.com/email/dcsr/nav_search.gif)
![[Login]](http://www.com-vis.com/email/dcsr/nav_login.gif)
![[Register]](http://www.com-vis.com/email/dcsr/nav_register.gif)
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Logged