Milton Town Council approved a land deal that allows Tidewater Utilities to build a new wastewater treatment plant off Sam Lucas Road.

Under the agreement, 10 acres of farmland owned by Loblolly LLC, a division of the Draper family holdings, will be deeded to the town, which will then deed 5 of those acres to Tidewater for a new plant.

Tidewater President Gerry Esposito told town council Sept. 10 the company is about 10 to 12 months away from putting shovels in the ground.

He said the the company will take the next four to six months to finish design of the plant and obtain permits from Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. He said the bidding and construction process will take 12 to 15 months with plans to open by fall 2020.

Esposito said the treated effluent will be dispersed in the same location in the Broadkill River as is being done now.

Once the new plant is up and running, Esposito said it will take six months to demolish the old plant and turn the land over to the town for use as park land.

“We’re on our way,” Esposito said.

With a new plant will come rate increases - how much is still to be determined - but Esposito said he would like to keep the user rates under $1,000 per year for the average customer. He said Tidewater will file a rate increase request before the state’s Public Service Commission while the new plant is under construction to time the increases for when the plant goes online.

Town Solicitor Seth Thompson said Loblolly owns 86 acres at the Sam Lucas Road site. Thompson said the council’s approval was necessary because new lot lines will be drawn.

Tidewater purchased the town’s wastewater plant in 2007. The existing plant has been in operation for around 70 years and Esposito has said it is badly out of date. Previous town administrations have wanted to get the plant off the Broadkill River, but shortly after Tidewater bought the plant, the financial crises stagnated growth around town, negating the need for additional capacity. The idea of a new plant was resurrected in 2014 when Tidewater proposed to either build off Sam Lucas Road or build on the site of the old plant. The Sam Lucas Road option was the most appealing, but at the time, neither Tidewater or the town had access to the land.



“This is fairly exciting,” Thompson said. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Mayor Ted Kanakos said, “We work well together. There were some rough spots here and there, but we move forward. This was the elephant in the room for many, many years.”