Artesian presents plans for Chandler Street facility

July 25, 2024 6

Artesian Wastewater Company has shed a bit more light on its plans for transferring Milton’s wastewater treatment plant on Front Street to Artesian’s Sussex Regional Recharge Facility on Gravel Hill Road.

Both Dave Spacht, Artesian’s chief financial officer, and engineer Dave Kostanski anticipate construction to ramp up after Artesian’s construction permit for a new wastewater treatment plant was approved by Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control in April. The permit allows for both construction and operation of the facility. Spacht said construction of the treatment plant, which will service Milton and surrounding areas, has already begun.

At the council’s July 1 meeting, Spacht and Kostanski laid out what is next. First is upgrading the Chandler Street pump station with new electrical equipment. Kostanski said the pump station is important because it will be what helps move flow out of town, enabling Artesian to eventually shut down the Front Street plant and demolish it, returning the land to the town. Effluent treated at the Artesian’s facility will be spray irrigated on the company’s 1,700-acre network of spray irrigation fields off Gravel Hill Road.

Artesian requested and was granted a memorandum of understanding with the town over the use of a shared generator for the pump station. Artesian would install a new generator that would serve both the wastewater pump station and a water pump station, both at Chandler Street. The water pump station is owned and operated by the town, but Artesian would pay for the shared generator.

Artesian also asked for and was approved for an easement agreement regarding electrical lines that need to be moved for the new generator.

Kostanski said once the pump station is upgraded, the next steps will be the actual pipelines that head out of town. He said surveying work has begun for the pipeline that will run from Chandler Street across Union Street to Tilney Street and then north behind Shipbuilder’s Village until it meets up at Gravel Hill Road.

Kostanski said the chosen route is meant to minimize impacts to traffic and homes. A construction timeline is not yet known. Artesian’s wastewater plant is expected to take 12 to 18 months to build.