The Town of Bethany Beach needs a new water tower!
Our community needs a new water tower in order to ensure our water remains safe to drink
and to ensure we are able to deliver water in the event of an emergency. The need for a new
water tower, combined with an extraordinary opportunity to receive a long-term loan at less
than 3% interest from the State of Delaware, creates a situation where the Town would be
able to build a second water tower with no increase in water rates!
In the next few pages we talk about the history of our water system, who we provide water
to, discuss the current water system, alternatives to a water tower and why we need a second,
additional water tower. We will outline possible locations for a tower, the costs associated
with each and finally how the Town will pay for this project.
Who do we serve and how do our water rates compare with other local providers.
The Town provides water to 2,877 customers in Bethany Beach. The Town also provides
water to an additional 679 customers outside of Bethany Beach in the communities of
Savannah’s Landing and the Salt Pond as a result of agreements the Town entered into with
those communities prior to them being built.
The Town’s water usage rates are the best in area. An average year round resident uses
40,000 gallons of water in a year. Using 40,000 gallons as a measure, a Bethany Beach
resident pays $338 a year (including the Water Bond Sinking Fee), an Ocean View resident
pays $619, a Sea Colony resident $505 and other surrounding developments $564.
The Town’s water rates are low because the Town closely monitors and manages the
financial aspects of its water system. Unlike many governments that mix and mingle
revenues from different sources, the Town’s water system is a stand-alone enterprise fund
whose total revenue pays only for expenses directly related to the water system itself. The
Town does not use fees and revenues collected for its water system to fund anything else in
Town government!
History of our water system
Bethany Beach began its water service to the community in 1951. In 1952, the Town
constructed its first water tower at the site of the Town Hall. That tower was capable of
holding 100,000 gallons of water and the tower was 100’ tall.
Demands on the system grew and in 1980 the Town constructed a new water storage tower
(standpipe) that was capable of holding 1,000,000 million gallons of water. This standpipe
was not a typical water tower where water is contained in an overhead bulb, but rather a
design called a standpipe which is simply a cylindrical tower (in our instance the dimensions
of the cylinder are 38’ wide, 120’ tall) holding water from its base at ground level to the top
of the cylinder at 120 feet.
Standpipes are generally gravity-based water storage devices, traditionally built in hilly or
mountainous areas, and standpipes are traditionally constructed at elevations significantly
higher than the communities they serve. Gravity pulls water from the base of the elevated
standpipe and delivers water into the system. In a traditional standpipe installation if you
turned your faucet on and did not replenish the water in the standpipe you could drain the
standpipe dry. The entire million gallons in the standpipe would simply run out.
In 1980, Bethany Beach made the unusual choice to build a standpipe in one of Delaware’s
“flattest” communities instead of a traditional water tower. Because the base of our one
million gallon, 120’ tall standpipe is built at the same elevation as the rest of the community
it serves, gravity can only pull water from the top 30’ of the tower. Only 250,000 gallons of
the 1,000,000 gallons of water in the standpipe is deliverable at acceptable levels of water
pressure. Acceptable water pressure means that it doesn’t take an hour for the tank in your
toilet to refill after it has been flushed or that there is enough water pressure at the fire
hydrant close to your home to fight a fire.
This standpipe was built at a site the Town had acquired for the purpose of constructing a
water tower and support structures for that water tower. This is the site of our current water
plant located between Collins Street and Lekites Avenue.
OUR WATER TREATMENT PLANT
Water that we pull from our wells comes from the only aquifers available to us. This water,
raw as it comes from the ground, contains excessive iron and natural organic matter and is
corrosive. These problems with our raw water created a need for the Town to process and
treat its water. In 1990, the main components of our water treatment system and water plant
were constructed to deal with these issues. An aerator, clarifying pond, mineral retention
ponds, a water processing building containing high lift pumps, chemical injection systems,
clearwell and other treatment and processing systems were constructed on the Collins Street
property. The water system and treatment facility at Collins Street has had no other
significant construction or improvements since 1990.
WHY DO WE NEED ANOTHER WATER TOWER?
Water age, how “old” the water is that comes out of our faucets, is not something that many
us give much thought to, but the age of the water in our water system is a serious problem
for our community. When we speak of water age we are talking about the length of time
between the water first being touched by chlorine and the time it actually runs out of the
faucet in the users home.
Our water, like most potable water in the civilized world, is treated with chlorine. When
chlorine interacts with natural organic matter it produces both the chemical trihalomethane
and haloacetic acids in proportion to the amount of natural organic matter it comes in
contact with.
There are literally hundreds of chemicals created when water is treated with disinfectants but
trihalomethane and haloacetic acids are among those most closely regulated and they have
been linked to birth defects and cancer.
Since our raw water has an excessive amount of natural organic matter when it is pumped
from our wells, after it is first treated with chlorine and sent into our water system, it has a
high level of trihalomethane and haloacetic acid, but is still well within any federal or state
standards.
But now the real problem occurs; the longer water sits in the system exposed to
chlorine, the more trihalomethane and haloacetic acids are formed.
Water age is a problem with many seasonal communities because homes sit vacant during
the off season and water sits in the system for long periods of time. Many seasonal
communities with similar problems with their raw water supplies are able to effectively deal
with those problems. But Bethany Beach has a huge obstacle to overcome when dealing with
water age and that is the previously mentioned standpipe at the Collins Street Water Plant.
You will recall that we said only 250,000 gallons of the 1 million gallons in the standpipe is
usable in the system. Essentially the bottom 750,000 gallons of water in the standpipe hold
the top 250,000 gallons at an elevation where it can be used. Not being able to exchange or
rotate new water for older water, not being able to decrease the amount of water in the
standpipe to a reasonable level of 200,000 or 300,000 gallons combined with the excessive
amount of natural organic matter in our raw water create a significant problem for our water
system!
In 2005, the Town of Bethany Beach was actually cited by the State of Delaware for having
amounts of trihalomethane in its water system that were over 175% above legal limits. The
Town was mandated to notify all homeowners by letter of the citation and began to
aggressively attack the water age issue.
The first thing the Town did was to modify its chlorine application at the water plant. Next
it began a practice that continues to this day, opening fire hydrants throughout the system
and “flushing” the system. In any given year the Town flushes over 4 million gallons of
water in order to ensure that we have no issues with the chemical by-products of our
disinfection process.
By any measure this wasting of 4 million gallons of our processed and treated water is
wasteful and environmentally unsound! However, it is the only solution that exists today in
order to keep the water in our system fresh.
Since the citing in 2005 and with new procedures in place, the Town has had no issues with
the quality of its water. The State of Delaware and the Town itself constantly measure that
quality.
We have, with a band-aid fix, dealt with our water age problem but the problem needs to
corrected and properly dealt with. The Town has studied and reviewed potential solutions
and has eliminated all but one and that is a water tower.
ALTERNATIVES TO A WATER TOWER CONSIDERED
A hydropnuematic tank system with a pump station, a ground storage tank with a pump
station, and a stand-alone pump house have all been considered as solutions to the Town’s
issues with water age.
All of these solutions would allow the Town to pull water out of the base of standpipe,
allowing the Town to keep much smaller amounts of water in the standpipe alleviating water
age problems. These solutions, at a minimum, would require structures of anywhere between
1,200 and 2,500 sq. feet on ground space at the Town’s water plant, and would be technically
complicated and electric dependent. All of these solutions would be expensive, albeit not as
expensive as constructing a new water tower.
WHY A WATER TOWER IS OUR BEST SOLUTION
Our engineers recommend that the Town construct a new, second, water tower at the
Collins Street Water Plant. It is recommended that the tower hold 500,000 gallons of water
and that our water system be designed to allow both the existing standpipe and the new
tower to work together or separately depending on the needs of the system and the time of
year.
This design recommendation fulfills a number of critical needs:
Water Age – first and foremost a water tower capable of holding 500,000 gallons of water
and operating independently of the standpipe off-season, completely eliminates all issues
with the age of our stored water. The amount of water stored in an overhead water tower, of
the type our engineer has recommended we build, can be controlled to the gallon.
Redundancy and Failsafe – Today if we have a significant mechanical problem or failure with
the standpipe requiring extensive repair, there is no Town back up system to deliver water to
our water system. If this problem occurs off-season, we would hope to establish an
interconnection with a neighboring community’s water service until the problem was
repaired or corrected. Should a problem occur during the summer season, an
interconnection meeting the Town’s water needs would be impossible. A new water tower
guarantees that either the new tower or the existing standpipe can be placed into service
independently until repairs are made or issues resolved and the system restored.
Regulatory Requirements –The State of Delaware recommends, but does not require at this
time, that the Town of BethanyBeach have a minimum of 1.3 million gallons of water on
hand and available 24 hours-a-day during the summer season. A second water tower holding
500,000 gallons of water, used in conjunction with our existing standpipe, allows the Town
to meet that regulatory requirement. Because of the large amount of water the community
uses during the summer season, using the standpipe as part of our system is not a problem.
WHERE WOULD A NEW TOWER BE CONSTRUCTED?
Three different locations have been considered for placement of a second water tower:
• the Collins Street Water Plant where associated costs would be $2.6 million
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the Church/Neff property where the costs would be $3.96 million
the Town’s Public Works Yard where the costs would be $5.4 million
At a recent Special Town Council Meeting the Bethany Beach Town Council voted to select
the Collins Street Water Plant as the location for the new water tower; the least expensive
($2.6 million) of the options available to the Town.
HOW WILL THE TOWN PAY FOR A NEW WATER TOWER?
Since 1980 The Town of Bethany Beach has paid for the major components of its water
system infrastructure through a separate fee that property owners pay with their May tax
bills.The fee on the tax bill is called “Water Bond Sinking Fund” because the two major
water system infrastructure enhancements the Town has made since 1980 were paid for with
municipal bond issues.
The first bond issue in 1980 was for $875,000 and paid for the construction of the Towns’
standpipe. This bond issue was paid off in 2007. The second bond issue for 3.6 million
dollars was in 1989 and paid for the construction of the Town’s water plant facility and other
costs related to that construction. The 1989 bond issue will be paid off in November of 2014
The Water Bond Sinking Fund fee itself is based on the front footage of a taxpayer’s
property with a minimum charge based on 50 feet of frontage. The fee has varied in the past;
the fee has been as high as $1.70 per frontal foot and is currently $1.07. This means the
average homeowner in Bethany Beach pays $53.50 a year to the Water Bond Sinking Fund.
As previously mentioned, the Town will retire all of its Water Bond Sinking Fund debt in
November 2014. This would allow the Town to borrow money for a new water tower
without increasing the fee that property owners pay for the Water Bond Sinking Fund!
The retirement of this debt comes at a time when the Town has an opportunity to take
advantage of a loan offered by the State of Delaware to enhance water systems throughout
the State. The loan is offered by the Delaware Division of Public Health and allows the
Town to borrow money for enhancements to the Town’s water system at a rate that is
62.5% of the prevailing municipal rate. The loan that Bethany Beach would apply for would
have a 20-year term and a rate less than 3% (we believe closer to 2.5%).
With a loan amount of $2.6 million, a 20-year term, and a rate of 3% or less the Town could
even lower the Water Bond Sinking Fund from its current rate of $1.07 per frontal foot to
$.76 if the Town wanted to pay the loan for a 20-year term. But since there is no penalty for
prepayment on this loan, if the Water Bond Sinking Fund is kept at its current rate of $1.07,
the Town would be able to pay the loan off in 13 years and save over $320,000 in interest!
THE TOWN NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT AND VOTE ON SEPTEMBER 8TH TO
BUILD A NEW WATER TOWER
We have spoken about the history of our water system, its current condition, why we need a
new water tower, and how we can pay for that tower. What the Town needs now is your
support to move this worthwhile project forward.
In their wisdom, the Town’s founders made sure that Town government could not borrow
large sums of money or borrow those large sums for long terms without voter approval.
Since the term of the loan we have discussed is for 20 years, voters will have an opportunity
to vote on a referendum to borrow money to pay for this project in a voter referendum to
be held the same date as the Town’s annual general election, September 8th.
All citizens eligible to vote in a general election are eligible to vote on this referendum issue.
There will be absentee balloting and the polls will be open from 12 pm until 6pm on
September 8th for those choosing to vote in person.
The ballot item regarding this issue will read:
“ The Town Council proposes to borrow an amount not to exceed $2,600,000 at an interest rate of
less than 3% from the Division of Public Health, Office of Drinking Water, State Revolving Fund
for the purpose of construction of a new water tower within the Town of Bethany Beach.
( ) For the proposed borrowing
( ) Against the proposed borrowing “
We strongly encourage you to vote “For the proposed borrowing”!!
We know this mailing may raise a number of questions and in order to accommodate that
interest, the Town will be hosting a Special Meeting on Saturday, August 11 at 10 am in the
Bethany Beach Town Hall. Please plan on attending if you have any interest in the Town’s
Water System or the proposed financing for the Town’s new water tower.
In addition, please do not hesitate to contact the Town Manager’s Office if you should have
questions about any information presented in this mailing. You may speak to the Town
Manager directly or make an appointment to meet with him. Staff can be contacted by
calling 302-537-3771 or by emailing [email protected]