How Much Water will the New Brewery Use?

The exciting news about the Cape Charles Brewery brings with it the sometimes unsettled notion of water, or available water supplied by the town’s water and wastewater systems. With this in mind, the Mirror queried town manager and assistant town manager Bob Panek:

With the new brewery possibly coming to town, do we have any idea how much water it will be using annually and how many ERCs (Equivalent Residential Connections) does that equal?

In 2009, the Town sent a letter noting that at that time, there were only 500 ERCs left due to the capacity of the plant (see attached letter). Can you all provide a number of ERCs that have been used since 2009, and how many are left?

The town sent this response to our inquiry:

•The water and sewer connection charges for the brewery/brew pub are calculated based on factors prescribed in the Town Code for manufacturing and food & beverage establishments. This equates to 8 Equivalent Residential Connections (ERCs).
•There have been 40 new water/sewer accounts added since 2009. Wastewater flow is affected by factors other than the number of new connections; e.g., changes in usage patterns, and inflow and infiltration into the collection system. The design capacity of the wastewater treatment plant is 250,000 gallons per day, which equates to 2,000 ERCs.
•Total wastewater flow in 2016 was 56.5 million gallons, considerably less than that experienced in 2009. The 2016 flow equates to utilization of 1,239 ERCs, leaving 761 ERCs of remaining capacity. This improvement is the result of the work accomplished to reduce inflow and infiltration into the sewer collection system.

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Wayne Creed

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