South Bethany Charrettes

South Bethany, Sussex County
Delaware

Population: FY'95 Budget: Households: Assessable Base: Median Household Income:

250 year round, 6000 summer 1,3750 $880,000 ? $35,000

Town Background

South Bethany was established in 1969 as a single family home community. The town is located on the Atlantic Ocean in southeast Sussex County, which is in southern Delaware. There are approximately 1375 housing units, 22 percent of which are rental units. The town has a population of 250 year round residents, with 72 percent being retired, and 6,000 vacationers during the summer.

The Town of South Bethany is small, encompassing only 250 acres. Due to its compactness the town is well served by a single ten-store strip mall and is not interested in further commercial development. The mall is located along Route 1, which bisects South Bethany and serves as its main highway, connecting the town to such cities as Ocean City, Maryland.

South Bethany is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and on the west by a wildlife preserve comprised of wetlands and shallow canals. The town's canal system drains to Jefferson Creek which runs along the western edge of town to the Assawoman Canal, and ultimately to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Issue

The uniqueness of South Bethany may be attributed to its distinctive canal system. The system is comprised of approximately 32 canals and divides the town into small, relatively isolated watersheds. For years, residents and visitors of South Bethany were able to enjoy the recreation of the canals for swimming, crabbing and fishing.

Today, however, the canals have become extremely polluted due to excess nutrient inputs from stormwater drainage problems caused by impervious surfaces. This pollution has prohibited recreational use of the canals and has profoundly degraded the fish and shellfish population, both in numbers of individuals and in biological diversity.

Approximately 60 acres of the town is impervious area, 50 percent of which is attributed to roofs and driveways. The remainder of the impervious area results from streets and the shopping strip along U.S. Route 1. The Route 1 corridor runs through the entire Town and is located to the east of the canal system and runs parallel to Jefferson Creek. The Route 1 Storm Water Drainage System delivers contaminants and nutrients originating from as far as 1 mile north of the town, including such towns as Sea Colony and Middlesex, depositing contaminants into the South Bethany canal system.

Currently, there are no Best Management Practices (BMPs) employed to treat or manage stormwater runoff. Catch basins are scattered sparsely throughout the town to capture runoff from the street surfaces. These catch basins discharge directly into adjacent canals. Swales, a vegetated alternative to curb and gutter systems, which help remove pollutants commonly found in stormwater, exist in various areas of the town. The limited system offers some conveyance and treatment benefits, however, the swales perform on a local level and are not coordinated with other BMPs.

Environmental Context

In addition to quantity control problems, the canal system in South Bethany is beginning to show symptoms of eutrophic waters. Excess nutrient loadings resulting from direct discharge of stormwater runoff have caused algae blooms. Continued nutrient inputs will reduce dissolved oxygen levels below those capable of sustaining most aquatic life in the canal system, and will ultimately increase nutrient loadings to Little Assawoman Bay.

Pollutants and excess nutrients from stormwater runoff degrade the water quality and damage the ecosystem of the canals throughout the Town of South Bethany, surrounding wetlands and adjacent waters. This has an adverse impact on the overall quality of life for people living in the area as well as other life dependent on the marine environment from microorganisms to fish and crab populations.

Project Financing

The Town of South Bethany applied for and received a grant from the Delaware Coastal Management Program (DCMP) in October, 1994.

The DCMP is an interagency program that is coordinated by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control and is concerned with the sound management of the State's coastal resources. The Town contracted with an engineering consultant firm in November, 1994 to perform a study that would address runoff quality and quantity concerns and offer recommendations on implementing BMPs to insure proper drainage while removing pollutants and excess nutrients.

The engineers' report recommended five different comprehensive plans using a variety of BMPs ranging in cost from $173,000 to $708,000. This has raised the question of which of these plans is most cost effective. Little information exists on cost effectiveness of BMPs. Further, there is no empirical data on the current actual water quality of the lagoons. No goal has been set on pollutant or nutrient reduction amounts needed to achieve a balanced ecosystem or even make modest improvements. The town has secured approximately $50,000 in state funds to assist in further design. The town can realistically budget only $10,000 - $15,000 a year for this kind of work.

Recommendations and Observations

1. The town needs to reach a consensus concerning its water quality goals, and specifically the goal for water quality improvement in the canals.

2. Understanding relative sources of stormwater pollution is critical to determining a strategy for treating those sources. The town should form a Citizen Monitoring Group, which would consist of town volunteers, with assistance from local universities. The Delaware Sea Grant Program has offered to help in this regard. This group could develop reports to help characterize the sources and composition of stormwater inputs. Once the sources are identified, partnerships between various organizations (i.e., DelDOT, Sea Colony, etc.) could be formed to address the problems of the canals.

3. The town should consider consulting with a non-profit organization, such as ENVEST. ENVEST is an organization developed by the American Consulting Engineers Council Research and Management Foundation (ACEC/RMF). The purpose of ENVEST is to encourage volunteerism among engineers in support of small communities around the country in need of engineering assistance.

4. Educating the community is extremely important - for example, to encourage less use of fertilizers and freshwater and more use of techniques such as Xeriscaping to increase buffer areas for natural filtration of stormwater. Also, directing rainfall from roofs to gravel or greenways will help prevent canals from sudden pulses of freshwater, while controlling floatable objects, such as plastic bottles, will reduce pollution in the canals. The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay is one organization which can provide information on Xeriscaping and other techniques.