ELLENDALE — Water fit for consumption that’s also appealing to the eye, nose and mouth is once again flowing from some residential faucets in the rural Ellendale area.

It’s a community-driven success story, involving Sussex County, the Artesian Water Co., federal entities and — perhaps most notably — relentless efforts by area residents, who dealt with poor water quality for many years.

The result — the $5.8 million Greater Ellendale Water District project, completed last year — has been a long time coming.

“The bad water caused people not to be able to drink it, bathe in it, to wash their clothes in it. It was just brown, truly brown, and it did have an odor,” said Delores Price, president of the Ellendale Community Civic Improvement Association.

But county officials were happy to help.

“This a real honor for the county to be able to do this,” said Sussex County Administrator Todd Lawson. “It is a very heavy lift. We’re doing something that people have called for for decades. It’s a great win for these communities like Ellendale. It is obviously a hallmark of this current administration to try to get clean water to impoverished communities throughout the state. And they are going to need partners like Sussex County to deliver that.”

No county money was utilized in the construction of the initiative, according to Sussex County Finance Director Gina Jennings. The monies came from the federal Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the bond bill.

“So it is a mixture of state and federal funds,” said Ms. Jennings. “We were responsible for administering the project and subsequently working with Artesian to operate it.”

Residential connections — free to residents in the district, which mostly runs north and south along Old State Road but does not cover all of Ellendale proper — began last year and continues. As of Thursday, 64% of the available hookups have been made.

“My last count (was) 111 homes that had been hooked up, and the county is interested in getting more people who didn’t hook up to come onboard while we have the money to help pay for the hookup,” said Ms. Price.

The water district project consisted of construction of water lines of various sizes, associated fittings, valves and fire hydrant assemblies with service connections. The Ellendale project is spearheaded by Patrick Brown of the Sussex County Engineering Department.

Vikki Prettyman, Delaware/eastern Maryland state manager for the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, a nonprofit focused on improving the quality of life for low-to-moderate-income individuals, shared the reaction of one happy homeowner following her connection.

“I just talked to a lady who just recently has been hooked up, and she is overjoyed because she doesn’t have to scrub her toilets with Brillo pads anymore. And her white clothes actually stay white after she launders them,” said Ms. Prettyman. “That is a big deal. And they have been drinking this brown, icky, smelly, sulfur-smelling water for over 20 years.”

Not over yet

But the war has not yet been entirely won.

Amid residential resistance, the connection struggle continues. Some residents eligible to hook up have chosen not to, while others are using the new flow for washing clothes and bathing but purchasing drinking water, Ms. Prettyman said.

“Some people are just dead set on not having a water bill,” said Ms. Prettyman. “Even though the connection is free (at present), and they are saving thousands of dollars if they hook up now — because the county is providing subsidized funding for that — you just can’t convince them of that. They don’t want to sign over easements for the county to come on to their land.”

She added there’s an educational element.

“Some people say that they don’t have those problems with their wells, and they are perfectly fine, and their water tastes fine. The more education that we give them (the better). Saying that the water may look fine and taste fine (but that) doesn’t mean that it is always fine. You can’t see … nitrates. You can’t see those,” Ms. Prettyman said.

“Some people just don’t get it. They have been doing it that way for years. They have been fine so far, and they feel that they don’t have to. Some of it is they just don’t want change.”

So the campaign continues to remind residents of the opportunity for the free connections.

“We are trying to stress that if you do not hook up now and take advantage of the free money, you’re going to have to hook up later, and it is going to cost you up to $3,000 to do it. You’re going to have to pay the impact fees to the county (which are currently being waived), and then, you are going to have to pay a plumber to do the connection. And the county is paying for that right now,” said Ms. Prettyman.

This effort may enlist members of Delaware’s congressional delegation — Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester and Sen. Tom Carper, both D-Del.

“We’ve talked to Congresswoman Blunt Rochester and Sen. Carper’s team and told them the problems we have been having. They are still trying to make that work with their schedule, one a weekend to help us go door to door,” Ms. Prettyman said.

Success followed failure

“This has been a several-year endeavor, where the community had called for good, clean drinking water for a number of years and were unsuccessful in passing a referendum to allow that to happen,” said Mr. Lawson.

After two failed bids for the establishment of a water district, the third time was the charm. By an 81-12 margin, a third referendum was approved in September 2018.

Since the connection project began in 2021, county staffers have visited residents, asking those within the district if they wanted to connect. “If they did, they signed an agreement that said they will connect. The connection was made,” Mr. Lawson said.

A key to the partnership was that Artesian already had a presence in the area with another project.

“The county worked with Artesian, which already had water and already had a tariff through the (Public Service Commission) to sell water. They were there because of the Ingram Village project that they were already building,” Mr. Lawson said. “So the county buys bulk water from Artesian to supply the residents of the county’s water district with water. That is the reason this deal worked. Because Artesian was a good partner. They were willing to help us, and they were already there.”

The rate is “at a very discounted level because of the arrangement with Artesian for the county to purchase bulk water from the company,” he added.

Artesian’s bulk rate is $6.148/1,000 gallons, and this is the discounted rate being charged, according to Ms. Jennings. Rates, based on usage, increase to a $8.644 rate in excess of 7,000 gallons.

Starting May 1, the county will begin its billing to those connected in the water district.

Connections remain free, though there is a to-be-determined cutoff date, possibly in early summer.

“The reason there is a deadline is, eventually, we have to move past the installation and creation time frame. The contract we’re paying the plumber to make these connections and the work that the engineering office is overseeing, it has got to come to an end,” Mr. Lawson said. “People need to make a decision on whether they want to connect or not.”

Ms. Price, who hooked up late last year, said she believes the problem with the water was that some wells were not properly constructed or weren’t deep enough.

“I didn’t have as much as a difficulty with my water as the people on South Old State Road and some north of me. My water has never been brown. It never tasted bad,” she said. “(But) I decided that — I am an older person — I don’t want to be bothered with having to have a well done when it runs dry. I just want something done that somebody else is going to be responsible for. I haven’t had any trouble with the water since it has been hooked up.”

In addition to free connection, a retrofitting program offering low-volume and cost-efficient equipment, such as faucets and toilets, is available at no cost up to the deadline.

“We would retrofit some of these things to reduce the water flow and make their houses more efficient. That was a bonus for us to be able to that,” Mr. Lawson said.

“The structure of the water district or the structure of the deal as such is that the county created the water district with residents voting in affirmative for the referendum. The only way the county can create a water district is through a referendum process,” he added. “It is a really difficult deal to form a water district, get the connections and then provide the actual services. It’s a very hard endeavor.

“That’s why I am so proud of the Ellendale situation and the fact that we were successful.”

Assistance available

There is assistance available via President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. It’s called the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program, which provides funds to assist low-income households with water and wastewater bills.

“Congresswoman Blunt Rochester was really critical in getting that portion of money into this act. Each state has its own regulations,” Ms. Prettyman said. “The state does have money in order to pay their water bill or help them pay.”

Information is available on the Department of Health and Social Services website DHSS.Delaware.gov.

Additionally, potential monies may be available to those who opt in after the free-connection deadline, via Community Development Block Grants, Ms. Prettyman said.

Other efforts

Ms. Prettyman said SERCAP is assisting residents in New Hope, a mobile home community off South Old State Road in the Ellendale area, through a $25,000 Healthy Communities Delaware donation “to provide drinking water for everybody within that neighborhood until they could get connected to the county water system.”

Further, SERCAP is working on connections in the Cool Spring area, between Lewes and Georgetown; the Coverdale and Messick developments, near Bridgeville; and a rural portion of the Lucas development, near Milton.