The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control recently issued a Coastal Zone Act permit that will allow Tidewater Utilities to build Wandendale, a large, regional wastewater treatment plant off Route 24 near Lewes.
State officials, including the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC), originally opposed the plant when it was under review by Sussex County. But after council approved the plant, DNREC changed its mind and issued a permit that allows the plant to go forward.
In his order, DNREC Secretary Collin O’Mara wrote, “The department continues to be frustrated by local land-use decisions that allow development in more rural, Level 4 areas despite significant environmental impacts, such as degradation of air and water quality, loss of habitat and additional demands for infrastructure such as roads and schools …”
O’Mara complains county officials continue to approve projects in the area, so growth is inevitable – and a central system, he wrote, is preferable to thousands of individual septic systems.
That might be so, but if it’s the state’s policy to restrict growth to protect the environment, then the answer is to allow no system.It’s DNREC’s job to permit individual systems as well as large, regional plants. If DNREC finds individual systems degrade air and water, isn’t it the agency’s job to refuse to grant individual permits?
Besides that, as many at the hearing pointed out, the existence of a privately operated plant does not guarantee anyone who builds a home will hook up. O’Mara’s order included two conditions: Tidewater is permitted to process only 1.45 million gallons per day, not the 3 million gallons per day it requested; in addition, Tidewater must move a planned rapid-infiltration basin away from headwaters of Love Creek.
These conditions appear significant, but they have no effect on Tidewater’s plans.
Company officials say it’s more efficient to start with a smaller plant and build in phases, and they’ve already found a better site for the basin elsewhere on the parcel.
Sussex officials are highly susceptible to local pressures, and they have for years allowed development in rural areas – where state planners say development is inappropriate.
Sussex ruled in favor of development; when it came to protecting the environment, the council essentially passed the buck. Now it appears DNREC is passing it right back.
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