DOVER — In a developed country like America, all citizens having access to clean and safe drinking water seems like a given.
The reality is that, in some cases, outdated infrastructure and environmental contaminants, or both, means the water that comes out of the kitchen tap is not necessarily safe to drink.
“Every Delawarean and every American, regardless of race, income or zip code, should have access to clean, safe, reliable and affordable water,” Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., said Friday, giving testimony during a field hearing. “It is a basic right and essential to public health.”
U.S. Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and Chris Coons, D-Del.; and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., met for the field hearing delivered in a two-part series — the first part being held Thursday in Beckley, West Virginia. The second field hearing, held at Kent County Levy Court, aimed to examine the challenges that small, disadvantaged and rural communities face in accessing and maintaining drinking water services.
Highlighted in the hearing, in some communities homeowners or those who rent apartments may need to take on the expense of purchasing water if their tap water is unsafe. Others may need to boil their water before using it for cooking, bathing or to drink.
Sen. Carper, who serves as chairman of the Senate committee on Environment and Public Works, noted the importance of access to clean water.
“You can’t have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness if you don’t have clean water,” Sen. Carper said. “We have a moral obligation to do something about it.”
Funding improvements
There has been an influx of national and statewide initiatives this year that have put a focus on improving drinking water access through infrastructure repairs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency made $164,000 in funding available in Delaware to improve drinking water in small towns and underserved communities.
The EPA’s funding, made available in August, is part of $25 million in Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act grants. The American Rescue Plan Act too has offered cities and towns funding for drinking water improvements.
In Milford, for example, about $4.3 million of the city’s $6.3 million ARPA funding is dedicated to infrastructure rehabilitation and improvements, according to Sarah Pletcher, the city’s economic development and community engagement administrator.
Of that amount, Ms. Pletcher wrote, more than $3 million is being dedicated to water quality improvements — the majority of which ($2.4 million) is directly or indirectly related to the replacement of lead water service lines under Mispillion Street, Northeast Front Street, Southeast 2nd Street and nearby street groupings.
In Dover, interim city manager Matt Harline wrote in an email that the city has more than 90 miles of cast iron pipe that is contributing to brown water issues. He wrote most of those lines are also undersized (four inches in diameter instead of eight inches).
Dover City Council is still working to set its priorities for its share of ARPA money. During a Tuesday Finance, Legislation and Administration Committee meeting, the council discussed partnering with the state in order to receive more funding to fix outdated water infrastructure.
Smyrna has allocated nearly $4 million of its $6.4 million in ARPA funds toward water and sewer infrastructure replacements and enhancements, town manager Andrew Haines wrote in an email. He wrote the town has various projects, listing North of Duck Creek Water Tower, South Well Field Treatment Plant as ongoing projects as well as utilities projects on East Commerce Street, North Main Street and north of Duck Creek.
Cassandra Codes-Johnson, associate deputy director of the Department of Health and Social Services Delaware Division of Public Health, said Friday at the field hearing that DHSS’ Health Systems Protection regulates drinking water and administers the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund or “the fund.”
Explaining how the fund helps aid smaller communities in paying for improvements to drinking water, Ms. Codes-Johnson said it combines grants and loans to benefit communities in need that are identified through the medium income of those living there.
She said the Division of Public Health has loaned out, often with 100% principal forgiveness, more than $23 million for water infrastructure investments over the last 10 years.
Ms. Codes-Johnson highlighted recent successes that “also illustrate the challenges that communities in Delaware face in accessing clean, safe drinking water,” she said.
In Georgetown, Ms. Codes-Johnson said the fund helped the town replace water mains and service connections that included lead service lines. The fund also helped the town upgrade its water treatment facilities, so solvents and carcinogens can be better removed from the water.
Ms. Codes-Johnson also spoke about Laurel’s replacement of distribution and connection lines that contained asbestos, using money from the fund. The town also upgraded its water treatment facilities to better remove high levels of nitrates — a widespread groundwater contaminant especially present in southern Delaware.
Ms. Codes-Johnson said nitrate contamination has been linked to thyroid cancer, gastrointestinal issues, miscarriages and birth defects. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nitrate is a compound formed naturally when nitrogen combines with oxygen or ozone.
High levels of nitrates can be found in well water due to improper construction, well location, overuse of chemical fertilizers or improper disposal of human and animal waste. It can be successfully removed from water using treatment processes like ion exchange, distillation and reverse osmosis.
Aid in Seaford took the form of distribution improvements to help private well owners connect to the public water system. Ms. Codes-Johnson said private well owners often have nitrate issues on top of environmental releases, surface contamination and issues.
Well water vs. public water
Rep. Blunt Rochester said nearly two in 10 Delawareans use private wells for their water. In Sussex County, nearly half of residents use private wells.
“Even though more than 13 million households rely on private wells for their drinking water, the federal government does not provide recommended standards or criteria for private wells,” Rep. Blunt Rochester said.
Ms. Codes-Johnson said education is a key factor in helping those with private wells ensure their water is safe to drink.
During her testimony, Vikki Prettyman, Delaware and Maryland state manager of the Southeastern Rural Community Assistance Project, said private well owners should understand how their well works, as well.
She said SERCAP offers well assessments and educates property owners on the ways wells could be contaminated.
“Nitrates — it’s not something you can see, you can’t smell it,” Ms. Prettyman said. “(Homeowners) think that if it tastes good, smells good, it looks good, then it’s good. That’s not necessarily the truth.”
Ms. Prettyman said boiling water to kill contamination isn’t always a solution. In the case of nitrates, she said boiling water only concentrates nitrates.
“Education is so important,” Ms. Prettyman said. “Continued funding of technical assistance programs like SERCAP is very important.”
Staffing shortages, affordability
Public water, Rep. Blunt-Rochester said, can bring its own set of challenges, including affordability.
“Water must be affordable,” she said. “Aging infrastructure and the rising cost of infrastructure and waste water services have culminated in rapidly high rising water bills for public systems.”
She said access to clean drinking water only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said earlier this year, she introduced HR3293 — Low-Income Water Customer Assistance Program act of 2021, which aims to establish a nationwide permanent program to assist low-income households with their drinking water and waste water bills.
Rick Duncan, executive director of the nonprofit Delaware Rural Water Association, spoke about challenges facing small communities that do have public water and treatment plants.
He said the nonprofit’s goal is to help small communities maintain their water infrastructure. Mr. Duncan also is a member of the Selbyville town council where he serves as the water commissioner.
The smaller and more rural a community is, Mr. Duncan said, the more difficult it often is for them to afford drinking water infrastructure. He said rural communities often have lower than average household incomes and high rates of poverty as an added challenge.
He said another challenge facing public water systems is finding people to work in them.
“Many small communities have only one operator with multiple duties, not just water treatment,” Mr. Duncan said. “Large communities may have a team of technical experts including engineers, chemists and highly trained operators as part of the full time staff.”
He said the problem of aging water infrastructure is compounded by the increasing cost to repair infrastructure and the lack of workforce to maintain it.
“Our communities cannot fill the demand for wastewater operators,” Mr. Duncan said. “We need help.”
He said Delaware Rural Water Association has partnered PolyTech High School to help train students for jobs in the field of wastewater treatment plant maintenance.
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