MILTON, Del. - Artesian Water Company will provide updates on its Sussex Regional Recharge Facility in a public information session on Saturday. The facility has 400 acres of farmland near the intersection of Route 16 and Route 30. People who live nearby feel their question's haven't been answered since last year's info session and that perhaps their efforts are working to delay when the facility is put online.
8 miles of pipe have been installed and are waiting to be used to pump Allen Harim's treated wastewater to a 90 million gallon lagoon. DNREC hasn't approved Artesian's operating permit allowing the company to spray yet.
In a phone interview with WRDE, the company said they expect the facility to be online in a few months and that Saturday's info session will focus on phase 2 of the project. This phase intends to address neighboring developments. A treatment facility behind the lagoon away would hold 625,000 gallons a day.
Meanwhile people who live in Milton say Allen Harim should continue disposing of treated wastewater as they are.
"You start adding that much water to a crop field, it essentially drowns the crops," says Tony Scarpa. "The Farmland Preservation Program was meant to preserve farmland and not to encourage residential development."
Scarpa says people appealed the construction permit and that it's now in Superior Court. Artesian says this appeal will not impact the operating permit.
Keith Steck lives nearby and worries about Allen Harim's previous wastewater violations.
"There's a lot of unanswered questions that I think people should be asking," says Steck. "The concern about the issues related to Clean Delaware because they are side-by-side. What's the impact of this spray field operation going to have on contaminated drinking water on that site?"
Artesian says the water will be better than drinking water after the plants take up the nutrients and that applying it as spray on fields is safer than sending it into nearby watershed like Allen Harim does now. The company says these crops aren't for people to eat anyway.
Artesian's public information session will be held at the Milton Cheer Center from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m on Saturday. Artesian hopes to file an application for phase two of the facility within the next couple of weeks.
DNREC says it is completing its review of Artesian’s operating permit application and the review of public comments.
"Assessing the potential for environmental impacts and reviewing measures implemented to identify and mitigate any non-compliant discharges are the key components of DNREC’s review," the agency says.