OCEAN CITY – The question of whether Demoflush as a means to determine crowd size should stay or go was put on the table this week for the Tourism Commission to discuss.
At the conclusion of Monday’s Tourism Commission meeting, Councilman Dennis Dare brought up the subject of Demoflush to receive feedback from business owners on how influential the formula really is these days.
Demoflush figures are estimations on the population in Ocean City based on wastewater flow from Ocean City provided by the Ocean City Wastewater Division.
“We all know the shortcomings have been well documented on Demoflush based on the fact that plumbing codes have changed, sewage flow is different and some of the things that have been done in that plant itself. It has been around for 40 years, and why it was brought up was to try to quantify how many people are in town. I don’t know how many business people make business decision based off of Demoflush … it is really not that accurate,” Dare said.
Demoflush was originally created to help medical facilities measure the transient population coming into the area as a way to better staff their practices to meet the added demands for treatment to visiting patients.
In August of 2013, during a discussion over an increase in room tax collected, it was brought to the Mayor and City Council’s attention that the Demoflush formula has become more slanted in representing the estimation of population in town due to more efficient equipment being installed at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) over a year prior.
The comparison of Demoflush figures and room tax figures has always been questioned. At that time it was noted the first weekend in June Demoflush estimated 204,647 people in Ocean City, which was a 23.5 percent decrease from the year before but the amount of room tax collected in June increased by .83 percent.
Already recognizing the false reality of Demoflush, the Tourism Commission developed a Tourism Metric Report in the spring of 2013 that looked at numbers across the board such as, weather history received from the National Weather Service, tourism taxes, lodging data collected from Smith Travel Research, web marketing results, attendance of Town events such as Springfest, bus ridership and revenue, Inlet parking lot revenue, the amount of solid waste collected and even Demoflush.
On Monday, Dare stated Demoflush confused the metrics report and asked the commission if the figures should be left out of the big picture all together or if its formula should be modernized to give a more accurate depiction.
Dare explained the Demoflush formula is based on an estimate that 100 gallons of wastewater is produced per person per day and the national average is three and half persons per household totaling 350 gallons per household per day.
“When you are at sea level, there is a lot of water that gets in the system because when we have high tide water gets in the manholes and such, so we also see great visitation when it rains,” Dare said. “Besides that, the 100 gallons per person per day is running the dishwasher, your laundry, washing a car, watering the lawn and how many people staying at The Carousel [hotel] do that? We are just not the same in trying to find out what our number is.”
Dare furthered there is less than 30,000 dwelling units and less than 10,000 hotel units in Ocean City, so if Demoflush estimates 300,000 visitors in Ocean City that comes out to be seven and half people per dwelling or hotel room.
Tourism and Marketing Director Donna Abbott agreed the amount of precipitation skews Demoflush results. She recalled a Labor Day weekend when Ocean City received nine to 10 inches of rain when Demoflush reported there was about 350,000 people in Ocean City that late in the season.
Michael James, owner of The Carousel Hotel, stated he does not use Demoflush but rather analyzes historical trends when predicting approaching visitors.
“Nobody uses Demoflush. That is why we came up with the metric that would be useful to you all [business owners] but also to new people that are looking at starting a new business in Ocean City, Md.,” Commission Chair Councilwoman Mary Knight said. “Demoflush in my mind is useless. It is antiquated where we are basing a business decision on how many people flush toilets.”
Ocean City Hotel-Motel-Restaurant Association Executive Director Susan Jones agreed Demoflush was no longer utilized in the tourism marketplace.
“When developers call who are interested in putting a hotel here or a restaurant, I give them the Smith Travel information or direct them to our metrics link. They never ask for Demoflush,” she said.
Mayor Rick Meehan recognized that any formula used to estimate population will have an exception but an updated formula could help the big picture become more consistent.
“It used to be apples to apples even if the number was off but in the last 10 years because of the new infrastructure, facilities and fixtures it has really skewed it. So either we stop using it as it is or we look into recalibrating it,” the mayor said.
Commission member Todd Ferrante, owner of Park Place Jewelers, made a motion to investigate developing a modern population count formula. The commission voted unanimously to favorably forward the motion to the full Mayor and City Council.