CAPE MAY – At the May 16 Cape May City Council meeting, a resident used the public comment period to ask for an update on funding and design efforts regarding the needed replacement of the city’s aging desalination plant.
Mayor Zack Mullock reiterated a comment he has made many times in the past when he said that the design scope will be dictated by the level of funding the city is able to secure for the project.
Mullock said the city recently hosted a team from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA already awarded the city a preliminary planning grant, which supported the development of a conceptual plan.
Mullock said the city has an upcoming meeting with the state.
“We are looking at big numbers” is a comment Mullock has frequently made. Estimates put the cost of a new and enlarged desalination plant at over $30 million.
The city was a pioneer in the technology when the plant was constructed in 1995. The plant has aged and is in serious need of rejuvenation, with the added problem that the city no longer meets state requirements for peak capacity.
Cape May’s water department supplies fresh water to West Cape May, Cape May Point, and the Coast Guard Base, as well as meeting the needs of the city itself.
A planned expansion at the Coast Guard training facility would put even more demands on the city’s water supplies.
Mullock said the city has a set of discussions upcoming with the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank (I-Bank) as another potential source of financial support.
“Funding will dictate engineering,” Mullock reiterated.
He promised a public briefing of the project and its current design status “sometime in the next three months.”
