Archaeological find forces Lewes BPW to pivot

The discovery of cultural resources during an archaeological survey of a site near Sussex County’s Wolfe Neck Regional Wastewater Facility is forcing the Lewes Board of Public Works to consider a new option for the future of its effluent treatment.

Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson said the findings could change history, but he nor the state is willing to reveal additional information, for now.

“It wasn’t that they found an item that was of significance, something that was valuable, it was the historic context,” said Lawson at a Lewes BPW workshop Aug. 9. “What they found maybe changes the history of the property in the sense that what we thought was happening there and what was happening in the region may be changed because it linked the past to something else.”

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control will conduct Phase 2 study of the property this fall, increasing the scope and focus of the survey, which will include hundreds of acres, Lawson said.

The survey results are a curveball in the BPW’s effort to partner with Sussex County to find an affordable plan to upgrade its wastewater treatment. “We were surprised. We’re now taking a left turn we didn’t anticipate,” said Lawson.

The BPW’s leading option had been to install fixed-head spray irrigation on adjacent woodlands. A six-mile, outer-loop extension of the Junction and Breakwater Trail was also planned around the Wolfe Neck facility on open farmland. That trail is now on hold.

Lawson said the entire parcel could be off-limits, depending on the results of the next study.

BPW is now shifting its focus to what it calls Option 3C, which would mean installing an ocean outfall pipeline from Wolfe Neck, under the canal and Cape Henlopen State Park to the ocean. It would not include any irrigation. The option would still include a partnership between BPW and the county.

BPW President Tom Panetta said Option 3C would be less costly than other ocean outfall ideas. “It also removes all effluence from the canal; all the concerns about the canal health would be removed,” he said.

At the Aug. 9 meeting, County Engineer Hans Medlarz said an evaluation of the option, including a cost estimate, could be completed in three to four months. 

Lawson said the option is similar to the outfall project underway in South Bethany, which is expected to go online next spring. “It’ll be there for all of us to see. We’ll have the data in front of us,” he said.

“No decisions have been made. We’re still in the discussion [phase] and entering the negotiation phase,” Panetta said. “We have not, by any means, reached an agreement, but we are on a path to something that should be achievable.”

Panetta said BPW will address the wastewater treatment options at its monthly meeting at 4 p.m., Wednesday, Aug. 23. He said BPW will also schedule more public workshops to get feedback.

BPW will take public comment on the Aug. 9 meeting until close of business Friday, Aug. 25.