Amid complaints from homeowners, Sea Isle to redesign stormwater pumping station

Sea Isle City will redesign a key part of its new stormwater pumping station after a roomful of angry homeowners complained that it would dump contaminants and debris into a quaint lagoon in their neighborhood.

After listening to the homeowners, Mayor Leonard Desiderio promised that the city will ask its engineer to redesign the project to address their concerns.

“We do listen. We’ve heard what you have to say,” Desiderio told them. “Once again, we’ll do the right thing.”

Homeowners packed the City Council chambers Tuesday to denounce Sea Isle’s original plan to have the pumping station’s outfall pipe drain stormwater into a small lagoon at 46th Place, near Park Road, in their upscale neighborhood.

“The neighbors are very concerned about this project,” Rich Cain, a resident of 46th Place, told the mayor and Council members.

At one point, Venicean Road homeowner Joel Stango stood at the microphone and asked the homeowners seated in their audience to raise their hands if they opposed the project. They all did.

During his remarks to Council and the mayor, Stango said the project would be “pumping poison” into the lagoon at 46th Place if the plan wasn’t changed.

    Homeowner Joel Stango tells city officials that the original design would have resulted in "pumping poison" into the lagoon.
  

Other homeowners made similar comments. John McLaren, of 46th Place, contended that the pumping station would dump “a cocktail of contamination” into the lagoon.

McLaren said that he has been swimming in the lagoon for 55 years. He said his children and grandchildren also swim there because it is clean now.

“These are recreational waterways. After the beach, these are the jewels of Sea Isle,” McLaren said of the importance of the lagoons throughout town.

Dick Lackman, a physician who lives on 46th Place, said the runoff from the stormwater would pollute the lagoon with bacteria and cancer-causing heavy metals.

“This, I think, is a serious health hazard,” Lackman told city officials while noting that he has become a cancer expert through his medical experience.

The homeowners suggested to city officials to relocate the outfall pipe so that it could redirect stormwater into a big channel or waterway that is swept clean by the tides or even into the marshlands. 

    The quaint lagoon is located on 46th Place next to Park Road.
  

Homeowners were relieved after Desiderio assured them that the project will be redesigned.

“I think they heard our concerns. I believe that the Council and mayor heard everyone’s comments and realized that they have to go back to the drawing board,” Cain said in an interview afterward.

McLaren said that he was glad that the mayor had reconsidered the project based on what homeowners had to say about it.

“I look forward to the results of them listening to us,” McLaren said in an interview.

The pumping station will protect the flood-prone area from Park Road to Landis Avenue between 43rd and 47th streets, all the way to the bay.

It will be built next to the city’s new $21 million community recreation center, which is scheduled to open in the fall between Park Road and Central Avenue from 45th to 46th streets.

Pumping stations intercept floodwater and channel it back into the bay or lagoons much faster than it would normally take to drain off the streets after a coastal storm. They have proved effective in Ocean City, Avalon and other shore communities vulnerable to flooding.

Sea Isle built its first pumping station in 2019 in the flood-prone area at the bay end of 38th Street and Sounds Avenue.

    The flood-prone area surrounding Sea Isle City's new $21 million community center, now under construction, will be protected by the stormwater pumping station.
  

At its Aug. 12 meeting, City Council awarded a nearly $881,000 contract for the underground piping system along Central Avenue and 46th Street that will channel stormwater to the pumping station.

Sea Isle is expected to award another contract in September for construction of the pumping station itself. City Business Administrator George Savastano estimated the entire cost of the project at between $2 million and $3 million once all of the contracts are awarded.

Altogether, the city is considering 10 areas throughout town that are vulnerable to flooding for pumping stations in the next five to 10 years, Savastano said.