Environmental board denies appeal to halt Rehoboth Beach outfall

Delaware's Environmental Appeals Board struck down a call to halt the construction of the Rehoboth Beach outfall with a 5-1 vote Tuesday.

In her appeal, Suzanne Thurman wanted a stay of the project, saying there are "reasonable doubts" that effective and factual long-term monitoring of the health of the ocean would occur.

The $52.5 million outfall will dump treated wastewater into the ocean about a mile east of where vacationers swim. It was created in response to a court order that the city stop discharging wastewater into the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal near the entrance to Rehoboth Bay.

Thurman, executive director of the Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute in Lewes, also said there would be harm to the marine environment and the coastal conservation community.

The appeal was initially filed in June 2017, making the construction phase a "moot point," Thurman said after the meeting. The project's construction that began in October is nearing its completion, which was slowed by last week's snowy weather.

But detractors of the outfall still have a bigger concern, Thurman said.

"Our primary focus and biggest concern is the operation, even more so than the construction," she said. "We’re going to focus all of our energy on the operation phase and the effluent and how that is being monitored, and what we start to see in terms of the animals.

"It’s a very dynamic ecosystem, so there should be some testing in place of the water itself."

Sebastian LaRocca was the lone dissenting vote Tuesday. A written decision will be released within the next 90 days.

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Paul Kuhns, Rehoboth Beach mayor, said he was pleased to learn of the board's decision.

From here on out, it's just business as usual, he added.

"The project has been going well so far," he said.

The only hiccup they have encountered was with the weather last week, Kuhns said. Because of their permit with the Army Corps of Engineers, they need to be finished with the construction of the outfall by mid-March.

The city went in with a motion to dismiss because of the timing of having to be finished by mid-March, and Kuhns said, "there was no merit" to the case.

Thurman said she would have filed an appeal as MERR, however, she said the option was not available to her. There were also "so few" attorneys that did not have interest in the project in some way, creating a conflict of interest, she said.

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Now, Thurman said she will go back to the MERR board and supporters to see if something could be done on a federal level.

“There is a change now that the county is being allowed to incorporate their wastewater," she said. "That was not in the original permitting or the original referendum with Rehoboth. So, it’s kind of interesting that what people voted on is not what is actually happening.

"And what the permit is for, I think it could be argued that it didn’t address this additional introduction of wastewater in the county."

Kuhns said the city and the company constructing the outfall are on pace to be finished by "early March."

Once the outfall is finished being constructed in the water, the city will then shift its focus to the force main at the wastewater treatment plant two miles from the beach as well as facility improvements to the treatment plant.

"We are hoping the entire project will be finished by June 1," Kuhns sad. "And we have to be out of the water by the early spring."

Jerry Smith of The News Journal contributed to this report.

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