The History and Challenges of Wastewater Reuse in Delaware and Maryland

Wastewater reuse was stared in Delaware in the 1960s when the food processing companies Clifton Canning, Wheatley Foods, Cannon Foods, and American Original using spray irrigation. They all applied the wastewater to reed canary grass or other types of grasses. Cannon Foods pastured beef cattle on their site. In 1970s Townsend started using spray irrigation on corn for their wastewater from their poultry processing plant. The Townsend Company was sold in 2002 to Mountaire Farms. Today they apply wastewater to corn and soybeans on approximately 1,000 ac. Spray irrigation was proposed for the resort towns of Rehoboth Beach and Lewis in the 1970s and for the town of Bridgeville in the 1980s. Both proposed projects were abandoned because of strong public opposition. In the 1990s three systems in the Inland Bays watershed and Water Farm #1 were constructed and began operation. In 2002 the town of Middletown started using spray irrigation. Today there is a great interest in rapid infiltration systems (RIBs) in Delaware. The first wastewater reuse project in Maryland began the 1940s when millions of gallons treated water from Baltimore City's Back River wastewater treatment plant were diverted daily to the Bethlehem Steel plant to be reused for industrial purposes before being discharged into the Patapsco River. The three dominant types of reuse in Maryland today are for irrigation (55%), cooling water (34%), and groundwater recharge (13%).