Ellendale residents divided on need for clean water; new referendum set for Saturday

Maddy Lauria
The News Journal
Some residents in Ellendale with tainted wells - mostly contaminated by nitrates, some also by fecal bacteria - are fighting again for central water. On Saturday, residents are asked to vote on a proposal for a county sewer district that runs along North and South Old State Road.

Ellendale residents have been on the front line of Sussex County’s nitrate problem for years, but it has been an ongoing battle among neighbors to find a solution.

On Saturday, some residents will continue their decades-long battle to get clean water as they ask neighbors to vote in favor of a plan that will bring a private-public partnership to the tiny town.

“I know we’re going to get it now,” said a hopeful Harold Truxon, who has been on the forefront of the fight for clean water in Ellendale for the past 35 years. “If we could just get clean water, I’d be happy.”

Built on what was once a marsh, Ellendale is no longer the bustling hub it once was in the early 1900s when trains passed through and merchant businesses thrived.

Lifelong residents say the economic struggle seen in a town with only a handful of businesses is largely to blame on the lack of water infrastructure.

“We’re losing young people because they don’t want to live in our area,” said Delores Price, who first moved to Ellendale in the 1950s. “The fire company is the biggest thing in town. It has a basket shop. How many baskets can you buy and use?

Delores Price is a former mayor of the Town of Ellendale and has been fighting for clean water for decades.

“Milton is growing. Georgetown is growing, Milford is growing. Greenwood is growing,” the 84-year-old former mayor said. “And what are we doing? Nothing. We’re dying.”

Delores Price: The people of Ellendale deserve clean water

Saturday’s vote will determine whether a small area along North and South Old State Road, most of which is to the west of the official town limits, will be able to give up their shallow wells and turn to the county and Artesian Resources Inc. for their water needs.

Sussex County Engineer Hans Medlarz said the area included in Saturday’s referendum is a far smaller district than the one sought last year. That proposal, which would have brought central water to about 200 residences, was defeated by a margin of 13 votes.

“I took a break and our organization took a break after that,” said Price, referring to the Ellendale Community Civic Improvement Association first founded by Truxon and others to fight for clean water. “And then I came back with a new idea and a new area of which to run the water system, and that would include the most needed area.”

Medlarz said nitrates and fecal coliform are the biggest concerns for residents along North and South Old State Road. That contamination was largely caused by failing individual septic systems, many of which were installed decades ago in the shallow aquifer that also feeds the area’s residential wells.

Central sewer brought to the town in the 1990s was expected to help, but Price and Medlarz said the problem persists.

'It's like living in a cesspool': County wonders how fardirty water has spread

Medlarz said nitrates are more prevalent than fecal bacteria. Scientific studies have linked nitrate contamination to a variety of health issues. It poses the biggest threat to pregnant mothers and infants because it can cause miscarriages and other birth problems. In infants, it can cause a potentially fatal condition called blue-baby syndrome.

Sussex County has proposed a new water district for Ellendale residents. The last attempt failed last year.

Medlarz said installing the infrastructure needed for this district will cost slightly more than the previous proposal because it is a smaller area. Because the project has not been approved, the county has not yet officially applied for financial help from the state, and Medlarz was hesitant to offer a final price tag before those specifics can be hashed out.

“As soon as we have a positive referendum result, the county has all intentions to filing,” he said. It's already sent a notice of intent to the state.

This will be the third time Ellendale residents have turned to the county for a central water system. The town also tried but failed to get its own water district.

The county will partner with Artesian if the new water district is approved. While Artesian will operate and run the system – which also will require a new water tower – the county will issue the bills and respond to any customer complaints, Medlarz said. Essentially, Artesian will give the county a bulk rate, and that rate will be passed on to the residents with no mark-up, he said.

The average cost would be about $430 annually, the county's notice states.

Opponents to the previous plan largely cited financial restraints as a reason why they wanted to cling to likely tainted wells. Adding a new water bill onto a fixed income was too much to swallow for people like Alice Fox.

“I still wouldn’t want the water if I was within the boundary,” said Fox, whose home is not included in the new district. “That’s not changed, not just one bit.”

But Price and others say they are not going to give up the fight.

“We see the need,” she said. “You just can’t turn your back on the need. The only way to solve the problem is to continue to fight.”

People within the newly proposed district are asked to vote between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. at Philadelphia Pentecostal Holiness Church on Saturday. For more, go to sussexcountyde.gov/ellendale-water-district.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.

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