When Daniel Burke ran for Town Council a few years ago, water and wastewater concerns made up a big portion of his platform. As a matter of fact, he was the only one then, or at any time, that cared to address the problems, which are now coming home to roost. Burke posted the following as a comment on the Mirror, however we feel it is totally on point and deserved a second look.
As a young Engineer, I was part of a management team responsible for the installation of a new sanitary sewer system under a small town of 35,000 residents. It was an absolutely fascinating job.
When I came to Cape Charles 10 years ago it was apparent that the Town was overmatched in the technical expertise required to deal with its substantial water issues. One hint of a problem was when I saw people kayaking from Lake Monroe to Lake Madison in the aftermath of a large rain event.
I have witnessed many heroic attempts to alleviate the situation by digging up, digging in digging out, replacing and re-locating stormwater lines. I have watched the ponds form and reform over and over in The Park. The aquatic life is diverse. Residential sump pumps pump away 365 days a year to help feed lake Monroe.
The problem that no one seems to want to address is very simple: water does not like to flow uphill. It needs help with that. These helpers are called pumping stations. The good news is they work; the bad news is they are expensive, very expensive. It’s a hard problem. No one wants to deal with it so the powers that be continue to whistle past the graveyard.
I once ran for Town Council and pointed out some of these issues including a mention of the shortcomings of our drinking water. I believe it was recorded. Ever go away for a few weeks and notice upon return your water smells like rotten eggs? That’s hydrogen sulfide. It’s in most water supplies in tiny amounts but you should not be able to smell it. It’s toxic. Then there’s bromine. Also in most chlorinated systems. It generates Trihalomethanes. The VDE monitors THMs closely. It’s carcinogenic. I believe we have been slightly over the limit for the 10 years I have been here. Anyway, when I ran for TC I was told that my focus was too narrow. I was too concerned about our water system and not the bigger issues facing the town. To that, I always thought…wtf?
So because I don’t think it’s proper to point out problems and not suggest a solution I would (I can hear the air being sucked into business owners’ lungs already) attempt to pass legislation to put metered parking along the beach. That would help defray the expense to correct our water issues.
Loraine Huchler says
Excellent article! One clarification: yes hydrogen sulfide is toxic, but not at the low concentrations that accumulate in a potable water system. As soon as you open the faucet, the concentration and odor of hydrogen sulfide will harmlessly dissipate.
And I wholly agree with your assessment about the need to rehabilitate and redesign the stormwater collection infrastructure in town.
SlideEasy says
‘As a young Engineer, I was part of a management team’ ??
How could a ‘young engineer’ be qualified to manage anything, as young equals no experience?
Daniel Burke says
From a project perspective young Engineers tend to do the ‘heavy lifting’ in technical application and daily management. Senior Engineers tend to be involved in overall planning and fiscal responsibility.
Young Engineers wear construction boots. Senior Engineers wear suits.
Barbara Nowakowski says
Spot on Daniel Burke. I liked your commentary, and I too was a young engineer for a while. When I walk my dogs at night I can hear the sump pumps gurgling up to the curb, yuck. When I swim my dogs near the discharge pipe at the LOVE beach I worry about our health and that of our aquatic creatures.
Paul Plante says
Well done on your accomplishment!
Barbara says
Oh, are you complimenting me? So sweet.
Paul Plante says
And yes, Barbara, as an old engineer, I was indeed complimenting you on what I consider to be an achievement for anyone – to pursue education in the field of engineering, especially in the field, where it seems all too few “engineers” these days actually go.
So, yes, as an old disabled veteran who himself worked diligently to become not only a licensed engineer, but an associate level public health engineer, as well, I am always interested in hearing about positive achievement on the part of “young” people in what otherwise seems to be a world of negativity and endless victimhood.
As a public health engineer who understands municipal lethargy when it comes to dealing with old sewerage systems with modern towns or cities now built up over them, I also have to commend Daniel Burke for speaking out about this issue, as truly futile as the effort might in fact be.
Paul Plante says
Barbara, I am curious as to whether you are familiar with the history of how Cape Charles came into being as a “modern” American city back in the 1880s?
As an engineer with an interest of the development of engineering in America, I find Cape Charles to be a fascinating case study, because A) Cape Charles is real; it exists, it can be visited and studied; and B) Cape Charles exists as a “modern” American city because of the ability of one person to not only perceive what a piece of essentially raw land in the 1880s, not all that long after the War of the Rebellion, could be, but actually make it happen.
According to its history, by October 1884, the railroad’s first passenger and freight trains began running up and down the Delmarva Peninsula to Cape Charles and within six months, two passenger steamers, as well as specially designed railroad freight barges, were regularly making the 36 mile Bay crossing to Norfolk.
Talk about having a vision and making it come true – there it is before our eyes, and it is interesting to look at photographs from those times, to see the beautiful water craft heading for Cape Charles in its heyday.
Trains soon arrived daily from New York, and the Eastern Shore’s towns prospered as their produce could easily be exported to metropolitan areas.
By 1885, the first residential and commercial buildings existed in Cape Charles along with a volunteer fire department, a newspaper, a school, and multiple churches.
So the tradition carried on by the Cape Charles Mirror goes back in time all the way to 1885!
Staying with the theme of Cape Charles being a “modern” American city, incorporated on March 1, 1886, Cape Charles quickly became the economic focus of Northampton County.
Paved streets, electricity, telephones, and a central water and sewage system made the Town more cosmopolitan than other Eastern Shore towns.
From an engineering perspective, what a treat it would be to track down in an archive somewhere all those original plans and all the correspondence that would go with them.
What a look back into not only history, but the workings of the mind of man, that would be – what kind of equipment they had, how they laid the sewer and water mains!
Getting back to Cape Charles itself, and this I also find interesting, many houses in Cape Charles were built by William H. Lambertson, who came to the Town from Pocomoke.
It is said that when he arrived in the 1880s, there were fewer than 50 houses, and by the time of his death in 1948, he had built more than half of the structures in Cape Charles.
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As I say, it would be fascinating to go to the archives or the library and dig out the earliest newspapers and follow the development of Cape Charles along.
And it would be something if all of that could be digitized for on-line searching.
Slide Easy says
Well, Bless Your Heart!
JJ says
The article by Daniel Burke addressing water issues was short and to the point. I’m no engineer but I also have concerns such as “why is or was the main pipe for town water located so close to that drainage area the town created for the material from the bay?”.
Is that a health concern or am I incorrect? The town appears to be booming now with real estate prices and tourism but years ago Dickie Foster and his group- some of them still there in town leadership poisitions- were suppose to be providing monies according to an Agreement of 1991for waste water issues.
If I’m wrong please tell me; if not what’s the hold up? Big problem was back in the day very few people wanted to stand up against Foster and his minions. If you did you were ostracized from the group or possible job. Now the town is relinquishing its control over the marina?
Whistling past the graveyard indeed!
Paul Plante says
This subject of the sewers of Cape Charles has a long and interesting history, to wit:
Cape Charles Mirror; Town incurs cost overruns from sewer and water connections to Cape Charles Brewery March 25, 2018 by Wayne Creed;
Eastern Shore Post; Is Sewer Our Top Priority? January 9, 2020;
Delmarva Now; Can a proposed sewer line improve Accomack and Northampton counties? by Carol Vaughn, The Daily Times Published 8:36 a.m. ET Oct. 2, 2019;
Cape Charles Gazette – Town of Cape Charles Sep 17, 2013 – (Wastewater Treatment Plant – continued from page 1);
GOSSIP: Cape Charles Wave The area’s other print newspaper, the Eastern Shore Post, has chosen not to … The sewer project was going to cost $1.8 million, which was 10 percent of the …
Town Council Mulls Fees for County Sewer Service : Cape Charles … capecharleswave.com › 2013/09 Cape Charles Wave … where dozens of speakers vociferously voiced their opposition to a special sewer district that would almost double their taxes plus entail …
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As I say, for those of us who today follow goings-on in Cape Charles the way we once followed life in Fernwood, or Hooterville, this history of the sewage system is quite fascinating from a sociological perspective as it seems to be the one topic that really binds the community together down there in a common dialogue.
If it ever got fixed, people would no longer have anything to talk about with each other, or to put off til tomarrow that which should have been tended to yesterday.