Lab work contracted out is a great idea in theory, if it does indeed save money, but in practice, especially when you have to perform certain bacteriological tests within very strict time and environmental concerns, it is highly impractical.

Regulations require certain things to be tested regularly and, in cases of spills or contamination or emergencies, further tests and frequencies are required.

No one is implying it's good business to increase costs. However, there were/are two projects that are not new that had or have to be done. One was the wastewater treatment plant on 23rd Street and the other one (still ongoing) is the expansion of Sweeney Water Treatment.

The new project, the nanoplant in Ogden, was necessary to support that growing and expanding part of Wilmington. The infrastructure simply wasn't there. We can either have the infrastructure in place to support growth or we can keep the infrastructure we have now and then complain later about the dying economy.