Stormwater problem areas reported by CHCA board
by Joel Hoffmann

The Chestnut Hill Community Association’s board of directors last week voted unanimously to recommend three locations in desperate need of better stormwater management to the Philadelphia Water Department, which will spend $30 million in federal loan money over the next two years on an ecofriendly pilot program designed to reduce sewer overflows.

Those sites, in order of importance, are:

• West Springfield Avenue, starting at Chestnut Hill Academy and continuing east toward Lincoln Drive, and south from there toward Cresheim Valley Road.

• Winston Road between Mermaid Lane and Germantown Avenue.

• Parking Foundation Lot No. 6 on West Highland Avenue.

The board’s motion does not carry with it a timeframe or suggested solutions to the problem of storm-related flooding. Nor is it clear whether Chestnut Hill will see any infrastructural upgrades in the two-year time frame for the Water Department’s “Model Neighborhoods” program.

It does, however, signal the community association’s recognition of the problem and its willingness to pursue other solutions if necessary.

Harriet Brumberg, co-chair of the board’s Development Review Committee and chair of its Stormwater Subcommittee, said that “people are really passionate” about finding a better way to control the flow of stormwater.

The Water Department is expected to break ground on its first stormwater projects this spring. The projects will emphasize a “green” infrastructure approach, featuring street trees, porous pavement and traffic-calming curb bumpouts filled with absorbent vegetation.

Green infrastructure is designed to capture stormwater and let it seep back into the water table naturally. The Water Department sees it as a low-cost alternative to overhauling the sewer system at a cost of $16 billion.

The “Model Neighborhoods” program stems from an order by the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reduce overflows from the city’s combined sewer system at least 85 percent by 2029.

Sixty percent of the city uses the combined sewer system, which funnels street runoff and household wastewater through the same pipes. When swollen to capacity with stormwater, these sewers spew trash and other pollutants into streets and streams and cause flooding.

Because Chestnut Hill is not part of the combined sewer system, it is not likely to be high on the Water Department’s priority list as it moves forward with its green stormwater infrastructure projects.

The Water Department has submitted a proposal to the EPA, urging the agency to grant the Water Department permission to spend $1.6 billion over the next 20 years on green stormwater solutions.

Howard Neukrug, director of the Philadelphia Office of Watersheds, last month told Philadelphia Weekly he was confident that the green approach would reduce combined sewer overflows by at least 85 percent by 2029. He also acknowledged that the plan is costly and that “sometimes mimicking nature is one of the hardest things to engineer.”

If the EPA accepts the Water Department’s proposal, city residents will see their yearly wastewater fees increase 230 percent by 2029 – from $400 to $1,321 – according to the proposal.

On average, Philadelphians are currently spending 1.1 percent of their median income on wastewater fees, according to the proposal. The EPA considers anything above 2 percent to be a “high burden” on consumers, but the Water Department has projected that the average wastewater expense will climb to 2.27 percent by 2029, if City Council signs off on the plan.

Under the plan, wastewater expenses would range from 3.5 to 7 percent of median household income for the city’s poorest 20 percent – approximately 396,000 people. (That population would exceed the number of people currently living in Pittsburgh, Pa.)

The Water Department has also projected a “200 percent return” on the city’s investment after factoring in environmental and social benefits. Those benefits include energy conservation, cooling shade, a reduction in heat-related deaths, increased property values and recreational space, improvements in air and water quality and the creation of new jobs over time.

If the EPA accepts the Water Department’s proposal, Philadelphia would be the first U.S. city to manage stormwater with green infrastructure on a massive scale.

Brumberg said the Army Corps of Engineers has also been working on upgrades to stormwater infrastructure. She suggested that the board contact the corps about funding.

In other news, an anonymous donor jump-started the board’s annual fund drive with a donation to the Chestnut Hill Community Fund for green space.

According to Jane Piotrowski, the CHCA’s vice president of operations, the community must match the $37,500 pledge in order for the fund to receive the whole amount.

CHCA president Walter Sullivan said the fundraising goal would be $100,000.

“Every dollar collected for the fund drive goes to the community,” said Bill McGuckin, treasurer of the Chestnut Hill Community Fund. “The return on the donations is 100 percent.”

He added: “I really would like to drum this up this year, and maybe we can beat the goal.”