Stop construction pollution of Spring Lake and the Thompson Island Preserve

Since April 2023, the main lake in the Spring Lake Community located on the Coastal Highway in Sussex County Delaware, has been polluted by silted runoff from the new construction site in the Spring Lake Community. The lake has been turned brown and now has a high phosphorus level that is requiring chemical treatment. If the phosphorus level is not controlled it will promote the growth of weeds and algae which will kill the fish in the lake. In addition, the overflow from this lake terminates in the Thompson Island Preserve and has polluted the preserve. The state agency responsible for protecting Delaware natural resources has allowed the developer to continue to build even though the developer has been out of compliance since building on the site began in April 2023. In addition, we discovered during this process that the measures used to prevent silted runoff only work for rain incidents of an inch or less. We have had 11 rain events of more than an inch since April 2023. This is more than double the number of events that occurred in the prior 12 month period. That means that every construction site in Sussex County has been polluting Delaware Natural resource because of current regulations do not meeting the current environmental situation.

We are requesting your support to have the Sussex Conservation District (SDC) withhold the permits for the Spring Lake Condominium development until all of the currently required preventative measures required by the Stormwater Plan and the SDC has been met. In addition, we are asking that the State of Delaware review the current requirements to prevent silted runoff from construction sites in light of the increase in rain incidents greater than 1 inch.

We would appreciate your support.