D. Preston Lee, P.E.
April 8, 2021
This is a response to letters to the editor regarding the City of Lewes Board of Public Works from Nick Carter and Bruce Chandler in the April 2 edition of the Gazette. A letter to the editor is not the best forum to present a point-by-point detailed response, but there are a few statements in the recent letters that merit a brief response.
There is no dispute that last year’s spill at the wastewater treatment plant should never have occurred. We at the BPW took this incident very seriously, and have worked to implement changes aimed at preventing a similar spill from happening again. Those changes included us looking inward and identifying ways that we, as a board, can provide better oversight. Ultimately, a detailed review of the incident revealed that the root cause of the spill was the inadequate maintenance of the plant infrastructure by the prior contract operator.