Here’s a link to my May 26, 2021 talk on flooding in the Historic Wingohocking Creek watershed.
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Category Archives: TTF Watershed
Understanding E Mt Airy-Germantown-Ogontz Flooding and Combined Sewer Overflow Pollution Problems
Posted in General, TTF Watershed
E Germantown Flooding – WHYY’s Reporting: March 2011 to October 2012
WHYY did a very good job reporting on the E Germantown flooding problem, with articles before the tragic September 2011 Hains & Belfield flood through October 2012.
Here is a link to a compilation of 12 WHYY articles that provide reporting on flooding in the Historic Wingohocking Creek Watershed portion of Philadelphia’s Council District 8.
Posted in General, TTF Watershed
Historic Wingohocking Watershed Flooding and Combined Sewer Overflow Problems: Zoom Talk – May 26th
Philadelphia’s historic Wingohocking Watershed is a large area in Northwest Philadelphia that extends roughly from Gowen St in the north to I St in the South and from Wolston Ave on the east to Germantown Ave on the west. The Creek was encased in combined sewers in the late 1800s, early 1900s to help solve gross water pollution caused by 1,000’s of homes, farms and businesses discharging raw sewage and wastewater into the local creek and its tributaries. The combined stormwater and wastewater sewers, large for their construction period, have proven to be too small by today’s standards.
In the 1920 – 30s, Logan area businesses and homeowners threated a tax revolt if something wasn’t done about the chronic flooding in the Logan area. The City responded by increasing capacity for the lower portion of the Wingohocking Watershed; unfortunately the Germantown – E Mt Airy – Ogontz area sewer capacities were not increased, resulting in our upper watershed flash flooding problems.
The City expended substantial capital costs to build the combined sewers. After spending these large sums of money, the City encouraged development in the area, including on the historic flood plains of the Wingohocking Creek. In fact, Belfield Ave and Sprague Street were built right over the former Wingohocking Creek. Today’s flash flooding is the natural flooding of the Creek during major rainstorms.
The Wingohocking watershed is the City’s largest combined sewer area, with annual discharges of 1.5 billion gallons of combined sewage to the Frankford Creek at the I St and Ramona Ave outfall, called T14 by the Water Department.
How will the City solve our flooding and combined sewage overflow problems? The City and the Germantown – E Mt Airy and Ogontz neighborhoods are at a critical juncture point where we need to adopt plans to resolve both the flash flooding and the combined sewer overflow problems. We need to learn from past Wingohocking mistakes and make sure that our decisions do not just repeat the mistakes of the past.
As a retired environmental engineer, I have been studying my watershed for years. Please join me for 2 more talks on the Wingohocking Watershed flooding and combined sewer problems and learn about available options to address both issues, either separately or in a joint – integrative approach. My goal is to inform my Germantown – E Mt Airy – Ogontz neighbors of our water problems and help all of us to understand the options we and the City have to solve them.
The May 26th (7:oo – 8:00 PM) ZOOM talks will give you the facts and information you need to understand our water challenges and opportunities and to be prepared to add your voice as the City prepares to decide the future of our watershed.
Historic Wingohocking Watershed Flooding and Combined Sewer Overflow Zoom Talks: Sept 16 & Oct. 14th
Talk had to be rescheduled. See updated talk on May 26, 2021
Philadelphia’s historic Wingohocking Watershed is a large area in Northwest Philadelphia that extends roughly from Gowen St in the north to I St in the South and from Wolston Ave on the east to Germantown Ave on the west. The Creek was encased in combined sewers in the late 1800s, early 1900s to help solve gross water pollution caused by 1,000’s of homes, farms and businesses discharging raw sewage and wastewater into the local creek and its tributaries. The combined stormwater and wastewater sewers, large for their construction period, have proven to be too small by today’s standards.
In the 1920 – 30s, Logan area businesses and homeowners threated a tax revolt if something wasn’t done about the chronic flooding in the Logan area. The City responded by increasing capacity for the lower portion of the Wingohocking Watershed; unfortunately the Germantown – E Mt Airy – Ogontz area sewer capacities were not increased, resulting in our upper watershed flash flooding problems.
The City expended substantial capital costs to build the combined sewers. After spending these large sums of money, the City encouraged development in the area, including on the historic flood plains of the Wingohocking Creek. In fact, Belfield Ave and Sprague Street were built right over the former Wingohocking Creek. Today’s flash flooding is the natural flooding of the Creek during major rainstorms.
The Wingohocking watershed is the City’s largest combined sewer area, with annual discharges of 1.5 billion gallons of combined sewage to the Frankford Creek at the I St and Ramona Ave outfall, called T14 by the Water Department.
How will the City solve our flooding and combined sewage overflow problems? The City and the Germantown – E Mt Airy and Ogontz neighborhoods are at a critical juncture point where we need to adopt plans to resolve both the flash flooding and the combined sewer overflow problems. We need to learn from past Wingohocking mistakes and make sure that our decisions do not just repeat the mistakes of the past.
As a retired environmental engineer, I have been studying my watershed for years. Please join me for 2 more talks on the Wingohocking Watershed flooding and combined sewer problems and learn about available options to address both issues, either separately or in a joint – integrative approach. My goal is to inform my Germantown – E Mt Airy – Ogontz neighbors of our water problems and help all of us to understand the options we and the City have to solve them.
The Sept. 16 and October 14th (7:oo – 8:00 PM) ZOOM talks will give you the facts and information you need to understand our water challenges and opportunities and to be prepared to add your voice as the City prepares to decide the future of our watershed.
Chew & E Washington Lane Flooding – August 4, 2020
Tropical storm Isaias dropped 4.5 inches on Germantown – E Mt Airy on August 4th, causing flooding in lower areas. this video shows the situation at Chew & E Washington Lane.
The 2nd and 3rd videos shows flooding of the E Washington Lane underpass for the SEPTA R7 line.
E Mt Pleasant Ave & Sprague St Flooding – July 24, 2020
For the 2nd Friday in July, there was flooding in the historic Wingohocking Creek Watershed, this time at E Mt Pleasant Ave and Sprague St. The previous July 2020 flood occured at Belfield and Church on July 10th (link).
Here is a short video that shows the flooding between the SEPTA bridge and Devon St.
This flooding was caused by the blocked stormwater inlet shown in this picture.
The July 11th Belfield and Church flooding (link), on the other hand, was caused by too much stormwater runoff overwhelming the sewers in that area.
The July 24 rainfall for Philadelphia is shown in this map which shows that our area got 1.5 – 2 inches and parts of Germantown got 2.5 – 3 inches.
As our global climate warms, we are seeing more intense rain storms. The July 10 and July 24 storms are an example of what we can expect. Please let me know if you see historic Wingohocking Watershed flooded intersections, railroad underpasses of other flooding so that we can log and document them to make sure that the City is aware and taking steps to both clear our inlets and increase our combined sewer capacity to reduce future flooding.
If you live near on of PWD’s 24 flood prone intersections (link) please be sure to get homeowners – renters insurance.
Posted in Climate Change, Flood Risk, General, Mt Airy - Philadelphia, TTF Watershed, Wingohocking
Tagged Wingohocking
Germantown – E Mt Airy Flood Prone Intersections
The Philadelphia Water Department has released an executive summary (link) of their multi-year study of stormwater flooding in Germantown – E Mt Airy. Their findings provide a wake-up call on flash flooding risks in this highly developed part of Northwest Philadelphia.
The combined sewers that the City built in the late 1800s and early 1900s to enclose the Historic Wingohocking Creek are simply too small for today’s stormwater runoff, causing sewer backups in nearly 2,800 homes and local flooding in the 24 intersections highlighted in this map.
PWD estimates flood annual flood damages of $7.1 millions to buildings and $1.6 million to vehicles.
PWD conducted detailed investigations into 2 storm relief options: 1) stormwater storage, and 2) tunnel relief. Both options are shown in the Executive Summary, however they are difficult to read. The map below reproduces the Water Department’s Storage Option.
Do you live in a flash flood prone area in Germantown – E Mt airy? If you do, your 1st priority should be to obtain flood insurance. Your 2nd step should be to ask your local elected officials, PWD, and your local community groups what steps they are taking to inform the public about our flash flooding problems and steps to reduce the risk.
Historic Wingohocking Creek Watershed Talk
I will be giving on January 29th, 7:00 PM at Lovett Library. Flash flooding has been a problem in E Mt Airy and Germantown with Haines and Belfield as the epicenter.
My talk is the 2nd in a 4 part series about Historic Mt Airy (link). I’d like to invite you and your associates to this talk on the history of the Wingohocking, why it was converted to a combined sewer, the resulting reshaping of the watershed’s landscape which allowed extensive development which then lead to our current flash flooding problems.
I am hoping to develop support for a Wingohocking Watershed Zoning Overlay that would require impervious land cover restrictions comparable to those now required in the Wissahickon Watershed Overlay.
You can view my talk slides here.
Posted in General, TTF Watershed
Wingohocking Flash Flooding
Here’s the slide show that I am presenting to the East Mt Airy Neighbors zoning Committee on April 16th.
Posted in General, TTF Watershed, Wingohocking