After a statewide gift-giving campaign, Delaware Natural Resources Police delivered 739 toys to the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots program in Delaware. For the seventh annual collection event, officers placed Toys for Tots donation boxes in locations statewide, including Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control offices and state parks, to collect new, unwrapped toys suitable for boys and girls of all ages.

“In this season for giving, our partnership with Toys for Tots brings us so much joy, and I am proud that DNREC’s Natural Resources Police officers stepped up again to make holiday presents a reality for hundreds of Delaware children,” said DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin. “Thank you to our officers, and to the many Delawareans who donated toys for the toy drive.”

In Sussex County Dec. 13, Delaware Natural Resources Police officers met Marine Patrol vessel Uniform at the Indian River Marina to pick up toys collected from Sussex donation locations and delivered them to the Sussex Toys for Tots facility. They collected 339 toys, which were among those distributed to children in 1,100 Sussex families. Donations were 203 toys, 52 games and puzzles, 72 stocking stuffers and 12 books.

Thirteen full donation boxes containing about 400 toys collected in Kent and New Castle counties were delivered Dec. 14 to the Dover Toys for Tots facility for distribution. The Kent County Toys for Tots facility served more than 1,200 families, with a waiting list.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contacts: Brooke Mitchell, brooke.mitchell@delaware.gov; Joanna Wilson, joanna.wilson@delaware.gov

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When put out for pick up or dropped off for recycling, Christmas trees should look exactly as they did when purchased for the holidays – stripped of all adornment, including tinsel, flocking and ornaments. /DNREC photo

Residents May Drop Off Trees at Yard Waste Sites Throughout the State

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control encourages Delawareans to regift their real Christmas trees to the environment by recycling them at one of the many yard waste recycling facilities located throughout the state. Tree mulch is great for helping conserve and enhance First State soil.

Christmas tree recycling also saves valuable space in Delaware’s landfills. More than 158,000 tons of yard waste, which includes grass, leaves, brush, trees and other lawn/landscape materials, was recycled in 2020. Prior to Delaware’s yard waste ban, many of these materials – considered reusable resources – were sent to landfills, taking up space rather than being handled through local markets for mulch and home composting.

Residents can choose from among many sites where to drop off their Christmas tree in Delaware. Some of these sites accept trees at no cost, while others charge for the service. Before residents drop off their tree, call the site in advance to see what restrictions are in place and if there is a charge. Residents who pay for curbside collection service should call their waste hauler to see if they offer Christmas tree pickup. If pickup is unavailable from their haulers, check the list of yard waste drop-off sites on the DNREC website at de.gov/yardwaste.

Trees may be accepted as soon as Dec. 26 and as late as Jan. 28, 2022, but each facility has its own schedule. Commercial haulers or landscapers should call a facility prior to delivering loads of trees. Christmas trees are no longer accepted for recycling at Delaware State Parks.

Whether dropping off a Christmas tree or having it collected, prepare the tree for recycling into mulch by stripping off all decorations and lights, removing any flocking (fake snow) and detaching tree stands.

Delawareans also are reminded that Sunday, Jan. 16, 2022 is the last day to drop off materials, including Christmas trees, at the Polly Drummond Hill Road yard waste site. The site will close at sundown Sunday, Jan. 16 and reopen for spring on Saturday, March 26. More information can be found at de.gov/yardwaste.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances ensures Delaware’s wastes are managed to protect human life, health, safety and the environment. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media contacts: Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov, or Joanna Wilson, joanna.wilson@delaware.gov

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$5.6 Million in Funding to Lewes BPW for Pilot Project of State’s Clean Water Initiative for Underserved Communities

Delaware state agencies today officially moved to connect the Donovan Smith community in Lewes to municipal water and sewer, which is the pilot project of the Clean Water Initiative for Underserved Communities established by Gov. John Carney.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed today by the secretaries of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) to authorize a $2.74 million loan to the Lewes Board of Public Works (Lewes BPW) for connecting the Donovan Smith manufactured home community into Lewes’ central sewer system, and a $2.87 million loan to Lewes BPW for connecting the community to the Lewes municipal water system.

The projects will be funded by loans from the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). Under the terms of the MOU, once construction is complete, the loans will be forgiven. While the MOU and other legal documents for the transaction must still be signed by Lewes BPW, the city of Lewes, the community owner Donovan-Smith MHP, LLC and the community owner’s loan servicer, respectively, negotiations among all parties over the last several months have been finalized and all parties are expected to fully execute the legal documents in the coming days.

The Clean Water Initiative for Underserved Communities, or CWI, is administered by DNREC and was proposed by Gov. Carney to protect public health and minimize environmental hazards and risk for all Delawareans.

“Through the Governor’s Clean Water Initiative, state agencies – particularly DHSS Division of Public Health and DNREC – are in a stronger position to protect, uplift and enhance the standing of Delawareans who until now might have been thwarted by circumstances, costs or lack of community governance structure hampering their rights to safe drinking water and proper wastewater treatment,” DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin said.

The DWSRF, within DHSS, provides support to Delaware drinking water systems through the Disadvantaged Community Subsidy program. This program ensures that DWSRF loans can be forgiven for projects benefitting the most vulnerable communities. Forgiveness of these loans ensures safe drinking water is provided without creating substantial burden on household budgets.

“We are grateful to the Governor, DNREC, the Division of Public Health and all of the entities involved in this clean water initiative benefiting this Lewes community,” DHSS Secretary Molly Magarik said. “Nothing is more inherently important to someone’s health than having clean water to drink and a safe sewer system.”

This CWI pilot project follows DNREC’s citation of the community’s owner twice in the last year with DNREC notices of violations for unsanitary conditions from its failing septic system that posed a threat to residents’ public health and safety.

Among other benefits to the community stemming from this pilot project, under the terms of the transaction, for a period of 20 years, the community owner (not the residents) will bear all of the community’s water and sewer utility costs and current community residents will be insulated from rent increases by the community owner that are based on the owner’s expenses for the community’s utility charges and the arising from installation of the water and sewer.

Construction on the sewer connection project is expected to begin in the first half of 2022, after the project is bid by the Lewes BPW. The CWI will facilitate the installation of approximately 5,000 feet of sewer main (connected into the existing Lewes sewer collection system on Donovan Road), 23 manholes, and approximately 1,500 feet of house sewer services with cleanouts, sewer main and service trench restoration, for 88 existing mobile home units within the Donovan Smith community. Installation of the Lewes BPW public sewer system will eliminate the failing onsite community systems and provide a safer, more sustainable sewage collection and treatment alternative.

The DWSRF-supported component of the pilot project calls for replacing an aging water system sited under the community’s mobile homes and through narrow spaces between the homes. Lewes BPW will install nearly 1,000 feet of 12-inch main to connect to an existing main, and 4,500 feet of internal main within the park, along with meters, service lines, valves, and fire hydrants inside the Donovan Smith community. All this – under the management of DHSS’ Division of Public Health, Health Systems Protection section – reduces potential for system contamination, provides reliable water service to the community and provides fire protection capability to the community.

More information about the Clean Water Initiative for Underserved Communities can be found at de.gov/cwi. More information on the Disadvantaged Community Subsidy and the DWSRF is available on the DHSS website.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Environmental Finance team administers Delaware’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, making funding available to municipalities, the private sector, nonprofit organizations and individuals. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media contacts: Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov or Nikki Lavoie, nikki.lavoie@delaware.gov

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White Clay Creek State Park offers scenic and recreational open space among 3,689 acres and nearly 40 miles of trails in northern Delaware.

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has adopted the White Clay Creek Master Plan after significant input from the public. The plan will provide a vision and a framework for White Clay Creek State Park for the next 10 years.

The master plan, created by DNREC’s Division of Parks and Recreation, includes 10 implementation strategies that group individual action items by theme or location. Top strategies include infrastructure improvements to the White Clay Creek Nature Center area to meet the demand of programs and relocation of the park office to the Maxwell House. Other strategies include development of partnerships to help with stewardship of the park, adaptive reuse of historic structures, protection and enhancement of ecology and natural resources, reconfiguration of some vehicular ingress/egress and parking areas, programming and signage, trails and camping. The division also created a calendar, which will be available publicly, with dates when Creek and Thompson Station road segments are open to vehicular traffic.

The public was integral in the creation and approval of the master plan. Signage, social media, emails, a kickoff event and press release were used to get the word out about the process. The division held four open houses and conducted an online survey to gather public input prior to drafting the plan. The division encouraged and maintained an open dialogue with park users and individuals interested in the park, held an open house on the preliminary draft master plan, and welcomed written and electronic comments. A final public meeting was held in August. More than 1,200 participants provided feedback through the process and all comments received were thoroughly evaluated for inclusion in the plan.

White Clay Creek State Park offers scenic and recreational open space among 3,689 acres and nearly 40 miles of trails in northern Delaware. The park is popular for hiking, bicycling, trail running and fishing, and includes accessible fishing docks, a disc golf course, a pavilion, bandshell, playground, agricultural concessionaires, public golf course, diverse natural areas, and is adjacent to the University of Delaware and City of Newark. 

The park’s master plan can be viewed at www.destateparks.com/whiteclaymasterplan.

About DNREC

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Division of Parks and Recreation oversees more than 26,000 acres in 17 state parks and the Brandywine Zoo. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contacts: Shauna McVey, shauna.mcvey@delaware.gov or Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov.

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Widespread beach erosion such as occurred at Bowers from coastal storms this year will be mitigated when DNREC replenishment projects fortify the most vulnerable areas across five Delaware Bay communities. /DNREC photo

The Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) Shoreline and Waterway Management Section expects to begin beach nourishment work in the Pickering Beach, Kitts Hummock, Bowers, South Bowers, and Slaughter Beach communities in early January 2022.
Beach nourishment projects introduce sand into the shoreline system to offset the effects of erosion. The beach and dune are an important natural line of defense between the Delaware Bay and inland public and private infrastructure, including houses and roads. The Delaware Bay beaches and dunes also provide recreational opportunities to residents and visitors and habitat to an array of plants and animals.
The beaches and dunes in sections of these communities ranked high in DNREC’s 2020 assessment of beach vulnerability, and planning has been underway for a small-scale nourishment project since mid-2021. Additionally, recent beach surveys and monitoring by the Shoreline and Waterway Management Section, together with resident and community feedback, indicate these communities were among the most impacted by coastal storms that produced widespread damages throughout the Delaware Bay shoreline in October and November.
Within each community, DNREC crews will place sand on the sections of the beach and dunes most degraded by erosion and storms. It is not possible to place sand along the entirety of each of the communities during this series of projects.
For most communities, the nourishment project will consist of delivering and spreading truck-hauled sand fill from a clean inland source. DNREC expects the cost of sand to be high and availability of sand to be limited compared to past years, due to high demands for the same material from the construction industry.
At South Bowers, beach-quality sand will be dredged from the Murderkill River Inlet and entrance channel and placed on the beach. The beneficial re-use of dredged material for beach replenishment is a regional sediment management technique that allows sand to remain in the local coastal system and provides cost advantages by producing mutual benefits from a single project.
Site preparation work for the nourishment projects will begin in mid- to late-December, and DNREC anticipates starting nourishment activities in January 2022. The project will be multi-phased, with individual communities receiving sand at different times based on the availability of sand, personnel, and equipment.
The truck-haul projects must be completed by April 15 on most of the beaches and March 1 on Slaughter Beach, when beach and dune construction must end to avoid adverse impacts to fish and wildlife. Further replenishment for these communities will be considered for fall/winter of 2022.
More information about the work of the Shoreline and Waterway Management Section can be found on the DNREC website.

About DNREC
The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control protects and manages the state’s natural resources, protects public health, provides outdoor recreational opportunities and educates Delawareans about the environment. The DNREC Division of Watershed Stewardship develops and implements innovative watershed assessment, monitoring and implementation activities. For more information, visit the website and connect with @DelawareDNREC on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contacts: Joanna Wilson, joanna.wilson@delaware.gov; Michael Globetti, michael.globetti@delaware.gov

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