Solid Wastes Discharged Into Lewes Canal

No that is not a joke headline unfortunately.  On July 10th a boater noticed a brown slurry with solids, coming from the discharge pipe from the Rehoboth Waste Water treatment facility.   They took pictures and sent them to the Lewes Coast Guard station, who turned it over to DNREC.  Yes, the town of Rehoboth’s waste water is dumped into the Lewes Canal, this is the same waste water that is being proposed to be pumped off the coast into the ocean (Ocean Outfall).  After DNREC investigated (completed July 22nd) it was discovered that the facility’s micro screens had not been in service for some time, which created the potential for more solid waster to make it into the Lewes Canal.  Rehoboth has thirty days to comply with the violation.

Just throwing this out there, but had a boater not seen this violation then it never would have been reported.  So what happens when something like this occurs with the ocean outfall?  This was reported on July 10th and took until the 22nd to be fully investigated.  So in that time there was possibly more discharges into the Lewes canal, that is a guess but who really knows.  The area that the EPA shut down for shellfish last year is just outside of the Lewes Canal.  It’s sad but had the city gone with the proposed ideas from Tidewater and Artesian  water companies.  This never would have happened.

Just another quick point but the fishing in the Lewes canal was getting decent then died right off, coincidence?  How many people have been fishing in that area, keeping fish and eating them?  This violation is one reason an ocean outfall is bad, something like this would never be noticed, but the impact would be by nature for sure.

Fish On!!

Rich King