Council Woman Elect Deaver-already working for the people!
Sussex County Council Agenda for Tuesday, Dec. 9th
includes an application by Tidewater for sewage treatment in Level 4 for development that has yet to be built. The State’s comments are here http://stateplanning.delaware.gov/plus/projects/2008/2008-05-02.pdf
http://stateplanning.delaware.gov/plus/comments/2008-05-02_response.pdf
This application Conditional Use (C/U) # 1792 was heard in November but then some residents held a meeting at the Rt. 24 fire station and have negotiated a new location map with Tidewater. I learned this from Lynn Rogers who wrote, …”I UNDERSTAND THE MEETING WAS HELD WITH APPROXIMATELY 75 PEOPLE THERE. THE RESIDENCES OF THE WILLOWS HIRED BONNIE BENSON, ATTORNEY TO REPRESENT THEIR CONCERNS. …The sewer plant was slated to be on either side of Rt. 24 in the Camp Arrowhead Road and Angola Road, Love Creek area. So where will it go now?
I am very concerned because this application includes a rapid infiltration bed – the cheaper form of sewage treatment--which looks to me like an open ditch of partially treated sewer water. From what I can gather these
RIB’S should be banned but are still being allowed. We do not know if the RIB will contaminate the aquifer or your wells. If your well is contaminated, that’s permanent. Is this company carrying a bond to pay for your new well. Are they carrying a bond to pay to replace the RIB if/when it fails? If you have neighbors in these areas PLEASE LET THEM KNOW!
- Joan Deaver
And the WNJ writes:
Where rapid infiltration bed systems are located in Delaware
1. Cape Henlopen State Park
2. Forest Grove, Hartly
3. West Bay Park, near Camp Arrowhead Road
4. South Wood Acres, south of Magnolia
5. Breeder's Crown Farm, west of Milford
6. Colonial Estates, Millsboro
7. The Trails of Beaver Creek, Harbeson
8. Stonewater Creek, northeast of MillsboroHow the system works -
Rapid infiltration bed systems work by treating household wastewater in a treatment plant and then releasing the discharge water to an infiltration bed.
The idea is that the water moves rapidly through a sandy filter layer and recharges the groundwater just below the surface. The systems typically require less land than a community septic system with a drain field or a system where treated waste is sprayed on open land.
The possible downsides as reported by Molly Murray (link):
"A popular alternative to privately owned residential wastewater-treatment systems may be contributing to high levels of both nitrogen and phosphorus in ground water -- the very source of Delaware's drinking water south of the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal.
...Scientists know the systems cause a large redistribution of groundwater where they are placed, and are trying to determine what effects that may have. They could be changing the very chemistry of the underground supply of water, possibly freeing up toxins such as naturally occurring arsenic trapped in marine sediments, said A. Scott Andres, a senior scientist and hydrologist with the Delaware Geological Survey.
...And there are concerns in the potential for big alterations in the natural rates of groundwater recharge. Natural recharge to groundwater occurs at a discharge rate of about 13 inches to 15 inches a year. A septic tank discharges at a rate of 3.28 feet a year and a treatment plant that sprays treated wastewater on fields has a discharge rate of about 3 to 9 feet a year. A rapid infiltration bed discharges at sometimes as much as 30 feet a year, he said. The goal of the research, Andres said, is to find out: "What is the appropriate way to be sure we're not making a mess?"
In catching up with this recent development, science may be a day late and a dollar short in terms of public health. Are the public's health and safety rates an unseemly second to unproven short-cuts for ensuring residential growth?:
Rapid infiltration beds have been around for decades and are especially common in dry, sandy areas where maintaining the water supply is a concern, but didn't become commonplace in Delaware until about five years ago. A combination of rising land costs, rapid development and a state initiative to limit state infrastructure spending to designated growth areas prompted several applications from private sewer utilities. Several of the companies proposed using rapid infiltration beds to treat wastewater in rural subdivisions.
2 comments:
You might have a hard time convincing people (and DNREC) that RIBs technology is "dirtier" or "riskier" than just dumping the treated sewage into our rivers and creeks. When you don't see it, it tends not to get noticed by the public until it's too late. I'd like to see some hard numbers comparing all the sewage elimination technologies before making the decision that RIBs is relatively worse or better. With RIBs, the treated water has to meet specific EPA standards, which is not true for a private septic system, which is why septics have to seep into the aquifer so slowly. Six of one, half-dozen of the other? I think most of Sussex County os still living by the old saying "dilution is the solution to pollution," which worked back in the 50s, but has been basically thrown out by most environmental scientists now.
Your points're well made, still, my feelings about differing approachs to waste reflect my position on energy from Nuclear power.
There has to be a slower approach so that human/other health and welfare is assured. Beware the utilization of any facility until its 'waste' or 'collateral damage' is understood and controllable.
Post a Comment