Delaware - Stop the Rehoboth Ocean Outfall Pipe
To stop the City of Rehoboth Beach from putting a sewage treatment plant outfall pipe into the ocean.
Since 2009 the Delaware Chapter has been opposed to the plan to send the effluent from the Rehoboth Beach Sewage Treatment Plant into the ocean. Right now, the plant empties into the Lewes Rehoboth Canal and that is polluting Rehoboth Bay. We don’t want a polluted bay. In fact, it was Surfrider Foundation’s volunteer water testing of the Bay that showed there was a problem in the first place. Other groups sued and a judge said the pipe must come out of the Bay by 2014.
The leaders of Rehoboth Beach believe ocean outfall is the least expensive solution. The Chapter believes:
- This is a colossal waste of fresh water, the most valuable resource on earth
- Alternatives exist like Spray Irrigation, or Land Based Application, wetlands mitigation banking
- If these alternatives cost more, the State and Federal governments should make up the difference, not Rehoboth Beach residents.