‘Stop DE Corruption’: DNREC Must Be Regulator Of Fort DuPont Project, NOT Facilitator Of Environmental Degradation

YES!  Finally!  Folks, please read this letter in its entirety.

Hello Mr. Garvin,

I’m contacting you based on your dual role as Secretary of DNREC and Board Secretary of the Fort Dupont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation (FDRPC).  You are one of seven state officials on the FDRPC Board along with Laura Lee who is a member of your staff.  I’m writing an article about FDRPC, and I’m seeking clarification of some issues.

The DNREC website shows two parcels of land protected by TITLE 7 CHAPTER 75 Delaware Land Protection Act.  The Fort Dupont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation (FDRPC) is now selling the Grassdale parcel to become a private RV Campground.  The other parcel is also part of the FDRPC development plan.

My understanding is that these are wetland areas.  Here’s a quote from the FDRPC website.  “However, all of Delaware City is at risk of flooding.  Most of Delaware City if not directly in the floodplain is near the flood hazard area.”

The legislative intent expressed in TITLE 7 CHAPTER 75 Delaware Land Protection Act seems very clear.  This Act uses the word “permanent” 34 times and “conservation” 13 times.  There is no provision for “conversion” to private unprotected status.  I also understand that DNREC is appealing to the National Parks Department to remove federal 6(f) protections which are still in force for one of these parcels.

This area is now part of Delaware City and the City Manager also serves on the Board.  I’ve attached the Delaware City Floodplain Management Ordinance which requires the city to:

Minimize the impact of development on the natural and beneficial functions of the floodplain;

Minimize the impact of development on adjacent properties within and near flood prone areas;

Provide that the flood storage and conveyance functions of the floodplain are maintained;

Prevent floodplain uses that are either hazardous or environmentally incompatible.

The FDRPC is bulldozing through these statutes with private development of the wetlands.  The citizens of Delaware City will be caught between a refinery and what was once called a trailer park.  This is one of the most vulnerable towns in Delaware and their flood risk is being increased by paving over wetland areas.

Based on State statutes this development would appear to be illegal.  Based on common sense, building in such a flood prone area seems simply foolish.  The gauge at Reedy Point is located in one of these parcels. NOAA predicts it will see 25-100 high-tide flood days in 2050. This prediction doesn’t include flood days resulting from extreme rain events, which are also increasing in frequency. 

I’ve also attached Senate Joint Resolution No 2 which charges your agency to “prepare a report on the findings, structure, and resource needs to support a State nontidal wetlands program and submit the report to the General Assembly and the Governor no later than one year from the enactment of this resolution”.

As DNREC Secretary your mission should logically be enforcing both State and local environmental statutes.  However, in your FDRPC role, you appear to be doing the opposite.  In addition, there has never been an audit of the more than $14 million in State funds appropriated for FDRPC.

I’m seeking any feedback to understand how facilitating FDRPC’s development of wetland areas is consistent with DNREC’s mission.

Jack Guerin
FightDECorruption.com

 

Got that? The guy who is supposed to regulate the project is on the Board Of Directors, as are a bleepload of other state officials, not a single one of whom have uttered a peep of concern about the Underwater City At Fort DuPont.

Shawn Garvin is not new to turning the notion of environmental regulation on its head.  From this piece:

During Garvin’s tenure as EPA Region 3 Administrator, the horizontal hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking or fracking) boom for natural gas in Pennsylvania took off.  The process involves the injection of a fracking fluid (water, sand and undisclosed chemicals) into a wellbore to create cracks deep in the earth which facilitates the flow of natural gas and petroleum. Corrosive salts (brine) and radioactive elements like radium are unwanted byproducts that come along with the fossil fuels.  These waste products are part of the waste fluid that comes up with each well and can be millions of gallons per well.  To dispose of the waste fluids involves additional costs to each well, thereby creating a point where proper regulations are essential lest the fluids be disposed of carelessly and dangerously at lower costs.

For years this industrial wastewater was being dumped at municipal sewage plants, causing damage to the plants themselves.  The damage is primarily from the brine in the wastewater.  The brine adversely affects the steel and concrete in the plants.  The brine also kills off the bacteria in the plants that is responsible for breaking down the organic wastes.  Additionally, the plants have no ability to filter out the radioactive materials.  The treated wastewater from these plants, compromised by the fracking fluids, go back into the rivers and lakes along which these plants are located to provide drinking water for people downstream.

For years under Garvin’s authority, EPA’s Region 3, which is in charge of regulating the disposal of industrial waste going to municipal sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania, denied that it was responsible.  

For years Garvin’s EPA refused to regulate the dumping of these hazardous wastes into municipal treatment plants.  Pennsylvania is the only state in the country that allowed the dumping of these waste fluids into municipal wastewater treatment plants.  Increased salinization was measured downstream of these plants.  It was not until a groundbreaking New York Times investigative series entitled Drilling Down, that this seemingly intentional oversight of EPA’s regulatory duties came fully to light for the public.  Minimal regulation was started after the publication of this series.

In other words, Garvin has had a long history of enabling polluters at the expense of the environment.  Making him a perfect fit in Carney’s cabinet of ‘team players’.

Those of you who have read DL for years have known all about the stench of corruption that has emanated from this project since its inception.  However, based on those who received the letter from Jack Guerin, there are likely some newcomers.  Here’s the best wrap-up of the history of this boondoggle that I’ve read.  And wrote.   You will learn that the project stunk from the very beginning, back in 2014.  Here’s a tease:

The scheme was so crazy that it might well have been dreamt up by a tiny group of cronies downing a few libations at Crabby Dick’s in Delaware City. In fact, it was.  Two of those cronies being then-drinking buddies Nicole Poore and Valerie Longhurst, along with Crabby Dick’s owner and then-Delaware City Mayor John Buchheit and disgraced former legislator and Delaware City Manager Dick Cathcart.

The fact that two unethical legislators, a disgraced former legislator, at least one ethically-bankrupt State Auditor, two governors and the current Secretary Of DNREC were/are in on this cesspool of corruption is a story that needs to be told.

The residents of Delaware City have only recently become aware that this could pretty much (literally) sink the future of the area.  Making this a fitting coda: The ethically-bankrupt official who sponsored the bill in the House, yes, Val Longhurst, has drawn her new district and excluded Delaware City from it.  The more progressive Senate has made sure that Nicole Poore will be held accountable by Delaware City residents.

But what about Shawn Garvin?  Just exactly how will he ‘regulate’ this project that he’s waist-deep in?  If not him, then who? Not the State Auditor, of course.  There’s a reason why Our PAL Val endorsed her.  If I’m Rep. Melissa Minor-Brown, who is ‘inheriting’ Delaware City from Longhurst, I’m calling for the State to contract for an independent forensic audit of this entire project. As soon as possible. The representative has already experienced butting heads with unresponsive state environmental officials, as her district is home to the Motiva toxic chemical spill.

Jack Guerin and Fight DE Corruption are performing an essential public service here.  Shawn Garvin: The ball’s in your court.  If you think that those who are looking to you for leadership will just drop this, you will prove to have been sadly mistaken.  You may be Carney’s kind of ‘team player’.  The question is now: Whose team are you on?