Artesian to start decommissioning Milton wastewater plant this summer
Artesian Wastewater announced April 7 that it will begin the process of decommissioning Milton’s wastewater treatment plant on Front Street this summer and start moving operations to the company’s Sussex Regional Recharge Facility on Route 30.
Dave Spacht, Artesian Wastewater CEO, said, “We are very close to discontinuing operations at the Milton plant here.”
Spacht and Artesian were in front of Milton Town Council April 7 for two asks: The first would be to amend the town’s memorandum of understanding with Artesian to allow it to continue to have access to the outfall pipe that currently discharges treated wastewater into the Broadkill River. Spacht said it was still Artesian’s intention to not discharge into the river and to do land application at SRRF, which includes a 1,700-acre network of farm fields stretching from Milton to Lincoln. However, he said, the company and Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control agreed that Artesian should keep the outfall available for emergency purposes.
“Outfalls like this are very difficult to get. Once you have them, they like to keep them in operation,” he said.
Spacht said Artesian will continue to pay the town $5,000 annually for the land rights to use the outfall whether the company uses it or not, until either DNREC tells Artesian not to use it anymore or the outfall becomes unusable.
“We only view it as an emergency. We don’t intend to run a pipeline down there,” Spacht said. “What we’re doing is planning. We are planning for the future because we don’t know what will happen when we decommission the plant.”
Council voted 5-2 to approve the MOU amendment, with Vice Mayor Lee Revis-Plank and Councilwoman Randi Meredith voting no.
Artesian’s second ask was for two easements to install force main pipe from a Front Street pump station to SRRF. One of the easements would be along Front Street, and the other would be at the brick walkway located near M&T Bank at the corner of Union and Front streets.
Adam Gould of Artesian said the work would take about a week and would include some excavation. Gould said the brick walkway would be reinstalled when the installation was finished.
Council approved the easement requests by a unanimous vote.
History of the Milton plant
It has been a long road for both Artesian and the town to get to this point.
The town sold its wastewater operations to Tidewater Utilities in 2007. The intention for both the town and the company at the time was to eventually move Milton’s wastewater operations off Front Street and to some other location. Tidewater was going to move the operation to a parcel on Sam Lucas Road, but those plans changed when Tidewater sold its wastewater operation to Artesian in December 2022 for $6.4 million.
Milton initially opposed the sale and filed suit in Delaware Superior Court, because it was unclear whether certain contractual obligations, previously agreed to by Tidewater, would be met. Those primarily had to do with where Milton’s wastewater would be treated and what the rate structure would be.
The town and Artesian agreed to a memorandum of understanding in which the town would drop its suit and in exchange, Milton customers would continue to be billed on a quarterly basis based on usage rather than a flat rate, as Artesian typically charges, for at least seven years. Artesian would treat Milton’s wastewater at a new plant being built at SRRF, and the treated wastewater would be land-applied.
The MOU specified that once the SRRF facility was online, Artesian would dismantle the old Front Street plant, it would not be able to use the existing effluent pipes and the land would be given back to the town. The sale landed Artesian 3,600 new wastewater customers, seven wastewater facilities and 13,000 acres of exclusive franchise territory in Sussex County.
