Mazurek Raises Water Recharge Issue in Lower

VILLAS — Whatever happened to a plan to take treated wastewater from Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) and put it back into the ground to recharge the aquifer?
That was a question posed by Lower Township Councilman Wayne Mazurek at a Sept. 5 council meeting.
Mazurek said Lower MUA sends one million gallons of treated wastewater to the ocean through the county MUA each day. Lower Township pays the county MUA to dump the water.
“We’re paying to get rid of this water which we need,” Mazurek said.
The county MUA discharges 30 million gallons of treated wastewater into the ocean every day, via four ocean outfall lines.
Mazurek said a recharge plant would treat Lower’s wastewater to drinking water standards and pump 500,000 to 600,000 gallons per day back into the aquifer.
Council passed resolutions supporting the idea three years ago. Mazurek said the last information he had on the project was the state was undertaking a feasibility study and examining what permits would be necessary.
Township Manager Joe Jackson said he called Lower MUA, but did not receive an answer as of meeting time.
Jackson told the Herald Monday he discovered the project was stalled at the state level.
Mazurek said the recharge plant would be a good legacy to leave behind. He said the state informed the township funding for the project was available.
Lower Township was the only municipality in the state that showed an interest building a recharge plant, he said.
The township would operate the plant at a cost of $150,00 to $170,000 per year, said Mazurek.
“We would save the money we are spending to pump the water out to the (county) MUA and use that money to run the plant,” he said.
The county and Lower Township MUAs originally turned down the $7.8-million wastewater recharge project. DEP added another $1.4 million to the $5.2 million it originally offered.
The DEP will pay $6.6 million and Lower Township will pay $1.2 million plus an estimated $250,000 in annual operating costs.
Mazurek said the last thing the township wants to do is build a desalination plant.
Town Bank resident Steve Sheftz, a former Lower MUA Commissioner, said the solution to the township’s water problems of private wells becoming increasingly contaminated with salt and volatile organic compounds should be solved by DEP drilling new wells for the township along the spine of the county which follows the railroad tracks.
He blamed part of the township’s water woes on DEP allowing Cape May to place five wells in Lower Township. Sheftz said Wildwood’s water utility was also taking water from Lower Township.
Villas resident Sal Riggi, who has 25 years experience as a hydrologist and environmental consultant, said he looked at records for the depth of the entire coastal plain aquifer. He said an observation well is used by the United States Geological Survey to measure water levels at the county airport.
Riggi said in the depth of water in the well was 33 feet below the surface in 1990. A measurement taken in July of this year showed the water had dropped to 48 feet below the surface, he said.
Readings taken since 2000-2001, when development increased, the water level has consistently been greater 40 feet below the surface, said Riggi.
“Since 1990, you have lost about 15 feet,” he said. “That is roughly five million gallons per acre.”
He said the recharge program would become a necessity. Riggi said development not only increases demand on the township water supply, but also decreases recharge to the aquifer because more land is covered with impervious surfaces.
“The unfortunate reality is somewhere down the road you are going to have to look at desalination plants,” he said.
Riggi noted Cape May is already using a desal plant.
Deputy Mayor Robert Nolan raised an old issue, the township taking control of the Lower MUA. He noted a vote of council several years ago was one vote short of authoring a takeover.
Nolan questioned Lower MUA spending $2 million in the past year to renovate its building.