December 2024 Wastewater Partnership with Sussex County and Lewes
Officials from Sussex County and the Lewes Board of Public Works (LPW) came to Rehoboth Beach this summer to propose an additional agreement to the wastewater partnership that the City currently has with the county. Rehoboth Beach and Sussex County have had a partnership involving wastewater agreements since 1983. The most recent agreement began in 2017 as part of the construction of our ocean outfall. We currently treat and discharge effluent from Henlopen Acres, Dewey Beach, and North Shores in addition to effluent from City properties. In the past 6 years, the County has come to the City twice before with other proposals. A 2021 proposal called for a $7.6M lump-sum payment for the county to purchase capacity in our ocean outfall of 2 MGD (million gallons per day) of treated effluent. The Commissioners nixed the idea due to the low payment, and the county’s desire to purchase rather than lease access to our outfall. A plan back in the fall of 2018 faced opposition when a former Mayor approached the county about taking over our wastewater treatment plant due to its need for major upgrades and the fact that the system has excess capacity. This plan would have also meant flat-rate sewer fees not based on usage, and was widely opposed by citizens. Terms in the new proposal call for a $20M one-time payment plus continuation of 42% of RB outfall debt service plus the cost of all future operations and maintenance in exchange for 5 MGD. Rehoboth would continue to own and manage the ocean outfall. Commissioners and the public have expressed some concerns about the amount of compensation to the City, the City’s liability under this plan and the quality of the effluent. Following five public meetings, where City staff and outside consultants evaluated the plans, the Commissioners set a vote for the Friday, December 20 meeting. Discussion among the Mayor and Commissioners indicated that, once they have a more concrete proposal from the three parties, they will hold a public meeting to give the public the opportunity to be heard on this proposal. RBHA has always supported citizen involvement, and would strongly support such an opportunity. However, the meeting needs to be scheduled after there is more data and citizens can review the financial terms and environmental impact of the proposal. Only then can a full public process be productive.
UPDATE Friday evening, December 20, 2024 – By a vote of 5-1, (with one absent), the Board of Commissioners approved a motion to authorize the City Manager to continue negotiations with the Lewes Board of Public Works (LBPW) and Sussex County Council (SC) to develop a partnership agreement to remove all treated effluent discharges produced from the Lewes wastewater treatment plant from the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal and utilize the Rehoboth Beach force main and ocean outfall for the purposes of this discharge as well as additional discharge produced from the Wolf Neck treatment facility. Upon successful completion of said partnership agreement, the City staff shall present the agreement to the Commissioners of Rehoboth Beach for review and possible approval. In addition to the motion passed, a number of issues were outlined to set expectations of the responsibilities and obligations of the City, SC and the LBPW, including financial obligations, environmental impacts, and operational provisions. What follows, as a resource, on page 10, is a report from former Rehoboth Commissioner, Jay Lagree regarding concerns about the wastewater proposal. A link to the City staff report Agenda Item Report No. 24-061 is also provided below as a second resource on this issue.
Report from Former Commissioner Jay Lagree Regarding Concerns about the Wastewater Partnership
Keep Working to Get It Right
The recent editorial of 13 December Cape Gazette, Regional partnership benefits all (Link - Select Viewpoints) is misleading and misdirected in several ways. The Rehoboth Beach outfall was completed by Rehoboth Beach in 2018. In June of 2025, we will have completed 7 years of very successful operations without problems and we have exceeded DNREC-prescribed purity standards by significant margins. We have achieved our goals: Dewey Beach, Henlopen Acres, West Rehoboth, and North Shores send their wastewater to our treatment plant and we now discharge super clean wastewater effluent one mile off our beaches. We do it for ourselves, our neighbors, and our visitors.
The citizens of Rehoboth Beach borrowed 38 million dollars to build the outfall and pipes leading to it. We have a little less than $40 million remaining in payments, of which 42%, or $16.6, million is to be paid by Dewey Beach, Henlopen Acres, and West Rehoboth. The remaining 58% or $23 million is to be paid by Rehoboth Beach. The proposal on the table now from Sussex County is to pay Rehoboth Beach $20 million. Somehow the Cape Gazette calls this a financial boon for Rehoboth Beach? I don’t criticize the Cape Gazette for not doing their homework, because this is complicated, but any third grader can subtract $20 million revenue from $23 million debt and see that this is not a financial boon.
Rehoboth Beach has successfully completed all maintenance, operation, and control of the outfall for almost 7 years. Why would we allow another entity to take over responsibility for a very successful ongoing operation? Instead of giving up control, we should consider a sharing of the operating and & maintenance expenses, but certainly not relinquishing responsibility.
The quality of Sussex County Wolfe Neck effluent is far below the DNREC standards for an ocean outfall. They say that they will meet or equal Rehoboth Beach quality in the future, but are reluctant to disclose any details or give any indication of how they are going to do this except to say they will utilize biological nutrient removal. That can mean a hundred different things. The citizens of Rehoboth need answers.
There is also a huge political risk. In the last election, the citizens of Sussex County said in no uncertain terms that they are sick and tired of exploding unchecked growth in Sussex County. The newly elected councilpersons will tell you this readily. But here we are getting ready to provide Sussex County with 5 million more gallons per day of wastewater capacity. It just doesn’t make sense.
Regional cooperation, a cleaner environment, and fair compensation to Rehoboth Beach are all worth fighting for. But for now, there are more unanswered questions than answers that the Rehoboth Beach Commissioners need to investigate before agreeing to anything on the dotted line. A new agreement would last for 25, 50, 75 years or longer. This can only be done with a lease agreement with frequent prescribed updates. There is simply no way to predict the future out that far. The field of wastewater treatment is a rapidly changing science. Any agreement must allow for these changes.
The City of Rehoboth Beach, Sussex County and our neighboring municipalities need to get together and work this out. It will take more discussion, more negotiation, and an agreement that protects our environment and is fair to everyone. That is about the only thing the Cape Gazette got right. The time to do it is now. (Former Commissioner, Jay Lagree)
