Sewage discharge leads to clam, oyster harvesting ban in portion of Delaware Bay

Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary Shawn M. Garvin directed the Kent County wastewater treatment plant to take immediate action to correct an ongoing discharge that prompted an emergency order for the closure of recreational shellfishing.

The area affected is in the Delaware Bay north of the entrance to the Mispillion Inlet.

The emergency closure impacts only the harvest of bivalve molluscan shellfish – clams, oysters and mussels – and does not affect the legal harvest of other shellfish species such as crabs and conchs.

The order came after undertreated wastewater was discharged into the Murderkill River by the Kent County treatment plant.

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