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| DNREC Secretary Sean Garvin |
Chris Flood reports for
Cape Gazette:
Cape Gazette:
At its core, the new Royal Farms on Route 1 in Rehoboth is still the gas-selling, chicken-frying chain it’s become famous for.
Dig a little deeper though, and the property is now home to one of the Cape Region’s most environmentally conscious buildings.
During a brief March 20 ribbon cutting, Brittany Eldredge, Royal Farms spokeswoman, said the building is LEED certified, but beyond that, chicken frying oil will be converted to biodiesel fuel and plantings surrounding the building require little to no water.
In addition the building itself, contaminants in the soil on the property were removed during construction.
Tom Ruszin, Royal Farms fuel and environmental leader, said Exxon, the site’s previous inhabitant, left them with a mess to clean up. Now, he said, the property is being utilized and more jobs are being added to the area.
DNREC Secretary Shawn Garvin was at the ribbon cutting, making his first public appearance after being sworn in three days earlier. He said Royal Farms committed to cleaning up the site through the state’s Brownfields Program, which encourages cleanup and redevelopment of vacant, abandoned or underutilized properties that may be contaminated.
He said the state contributed $155,000 into rehabilitating the site, which, he said, had contaminants that had begun to leak into local drinking water.
A project like this protects the environment, increases public health and stimulates the economy, said Garvin. It shows that these things go hand in hand.
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