East Torresdale: Residents seek
answers on sewage facility

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Residents attended an East Torresdale Civic Association meeting last week expecting to get answers directly from the source about a proposed multimillion-gallon sewage-storage facility in their neighborhood.
ETCA has been discussing the sewage-tank issue for months. Members have voted overwhelmingly to oppose the project.
Leaders of the civic group had announced more than a month ahead of time that a Philadelphia Water Department official would be the guest speaker at the group’s April 9 general meeting. They put it in the organization’s monthly newsletter, too.
But come April 9, a water department representative failed to show.
According to ETCA first vice president Bernard Reidenberg, the speaker was supposed to be Kathryn Guest, manager of the department’s Baxter Drinking Water Treatment Plant at State Road and Linden Avenue.
Reidenberg reported that Guest canceled on short notice, citing the city’s uncertain plans for the sewage project. The city official said she didn’t want to give out "bad information," according to the civic leader.
"They didn’t give us notice ahead of time. This was a last-minute deal," Reidenberg said.
Contacted by the Northeast Times, Guest claims that she never gave a definite commitment to attend the meeting and that she notified Reidenberg days in advance that she would not be there.
"I hadn’t agreed (to attend). I tentatively said I could," Guest said.
The city official decided not to go after learning of the group’s agenda. As a drinking-water plant official, she has nothing to do with wastewater — that is, sewage. That’s an entirely different branch of the department, she said.
"When (Reidenberg) got back to me with the agenda, I told him I wasn’t the right person," Guest said.
So, residents still have a lot of unanswered questions about the proposed sewage facility — most important, what can they do to block the project.
City Councilman Brian O’Neill, whose 10th district covers a portion of East Torresdale including the proposed project site, offered to back the neighbors.
As previously reported in the Times, the water department has chosen city parkland along Poquessing Creek, behind the Holy Family University campus, as the project site.
Two other nearby Fairmount Park-owned sites were considered: Fluehr Park, at Grant and Torresdale avenues, as well as a site along the Poquessing near Frankford Avenue and Knights Road.
The facility is needed because of excess sewage in the city’s water system. During heavy rains, the system tends to clog with untreated wastewater surfacing at certain sewer access points. At least one of those contamination areas is at Holy Family.
Those familiar with the problem blame suburban development. The city processes sewage from surrounding counties for a fee. More construction in the suburbs means more sewage in the city’s pipes.
O’Neill reported at the East Torresdale Civic meeting that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the city to fix the problem.
The city’s proposed solution is a large underground tank that could temporarily store overflow sewage during heavy rains. The tank would drain itself when sewer volume subsides. Ultimately, sewage from the Northeast ends up at a treatment plant in Port Richmond.
Residents fear that such a facility would smell bad and lower their property values. Even if installed underground, there would have to be vents of some kind, they figure.
The water department has not presented detailed plans in any public forum. Neighbors have learned about the project in piecemeal fashion from individuals who have been in contact with the water department privately, including a couple of area residents and a university engineer.
At a previous ETCA meeting, one resident reported that he was told the tank would hold up to four million gallons of sewage. O’Neill believes that the water department is talking about spending more than $14 million on the project.
"And that’s today’s estimate," the councilman said. "With the water department, it will be twenty-million dollars by the time they get around to doing it."
O’Neill doesn’t think it has to happen at all.
"I wouldn’t want to live within a mile of it," he said. "I don’t care if you’re at Glen Foerd or right down the street, somebody is going to say to you, ‘Don’t you live near that sewage pit?’ It’s something totally inappropriate.
"I don’t think any of the sites are right. I don’t believe they should put it near any home or university or park."
O’Neill prefers that the city force Bucks County to build its own sewage treatment plant so that it won’t have to ship its waste through the Northeast.
Or the city could spend extra money to install a pump to force the sewage on its way, O’Neill said. But he doesn’t feel that city taxpayers should foot the bill for a problem most agree is being caused by suburban development.
Any project at the selected site will be subject to several important political factors. Besides O’Neill, neighbors are likely to have City Hall support from Councilwoman Joan Krajewski (D-6th dist.).
Krajewski’s district covers most of East Torresdale. She also is Democratic leader of the 65th Ward, which includes the proposed project site.
Further, Krajewski opposed using the Fluehr Park site, which is in her council district, for the project.
Because the site is on city park ground, the Fairmount Park Commission must approve the project, too. O’Neill believes there could be a close vote among the 16 commission members because six are tied directly to the administration of Mayor John Street, including the mayor and water department commissioner.
One local homeowner reported that volunteers have been circulating a petition against the project.
"We have approximately four-hundred households who signed a petition that we don’t want this," the man said.
In a separate matter, residents heard from a city zoning planner about proposed changes to the zoning map in a section of East Torresdale.
The remapping covers the area bounded by Grant Avenue to the north, Interstate 95 to the east, Pearson Street to the south and Frankford Avenue to the west, according to Bill Kramer, the senior zoning planner.
Mostly, the changes would make residential zoning more restrictive to prevent real estate developers from buying up the large lots that characterize the area and subdividing them to build multiple homes. Krajewski had asked the planning commission to assess the area.
The remapping is a trade-off of sorts, Kramer said. Though it helps protect open space and single homes, it might result in a bit more red tape for residents who want to modify their existing homes with, for example, a deck or an addition. Homeowners might have to get zoning board approval for such a project.
Leaders of the civic group asked for more time to review the new zoning map before they might endorse it. If approved by the civic group, the map will go before City Council. ••
The next East Torresdale Civic Association general meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 14, at Liberty Evangelical Free Church, Linden Avenue and Milnor Street. Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers is scheduled as guest speaker.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com