The Ocean is Not A Dump!

On December 14th the Rehoboth Beach City Commissioners voted to use the ocean as a dump. They chose to send their sewage treatment plant effluent into the ocean. They turned down the viable alternative of Land Based Application, or LBA, where this treated water is used to irrigate farmland growing. LBA is currently being used successfully in Delaware.

Treated water from sewage treatment plants contains nutrients that can be bad for the marine environment. These nutrients contribute to Harmful Algal Blooms and Red Tides. Discharging into the ocean also wastes freshwater that cannot be recovered. LBA puts nutrients where they can be used by crops, thus reducing the need for additional fertilizer. It also saves freshwater by recharging aquifers and keeps Delaware farming.

A Court order told the City of Rehoboth Beach to stop discharging their sewage treatment plant wastewater into the Rehoboth Lewes canal because the nutrient-rich effluent was damaging the Canal and Rehoboth Bay. It therefore makes no sense to send the plant's future wastewater into the ocean, which is simply a bigger body of water.

The City of Rehoboth is basing their decision purely on economics and cost to Rehoboth residents based on flawed studies comparing ocean discharge to LBA. State agencies like DNREC, the Farm Bureau, and the DE legislature have already expressed support for saving freshwater, preserving farmland and reducing unnecessary harm to the marine environment by supporting the concept of Land Based Application.