Philly will use federal funds to fight flooding in Germantown and reduce wastewater overflows in Port Richmond

Philadelphia is receiving about $25 million in federal funding to help fund water infrastructure projects in Port Richmond, Germantown, and East Falls, state and city leaders announced Wednesday.

The money comes from a $205.4 million allocation that Pennsylvania received for water projects from the American Rescue Plan Act, the 2021 pandemic relief legislation championed by President Joe Biden.

State Rep. Jordan Harris (D., Phila.), who chairs the Appropriations Committee, helped steer the money to Philly.

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“Philadelphia is one of the oldest cities in the nation and because of that, we have old and aging infrastructure, and that infrastructure must be addressed,” Harris said at a news conference at the Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant in Port Richmond. “These dollars ... will help with drinking water, sanitary sewage, and storm water projects.”

The Philadelphia Water Department will spend $4.1 million for sewer improvements for a half-mile stretch of 21st Street in Germantown that has experienced flooding from storm water, and $5.5 million for its Queen Lane Water Treatment Plant in East Falls, which provides drinking water drawn from the Schuylkill.

The remaining $15 million will be used to expand the capacity of the Port Richmond facility, which cleans wastewater before it is released back into the Delaware River, from 480 million gallons a day to 650 million gallons a day.

After wastewater flows out of Philadelphians’ homes and into the facility, it is screened to remove large debris before sitting for two hours to allow smaller sediment to settle out. It is then funneled into aeration tanks where naturally occurring bacteria help remove pollutants. Then, it is chemically disinfected to kill pathogens.

By the time it flows out of a pier in Port Richmond, the water is considered to be cleaner than it was before it entered the municipal system.

But during some storms, the city’s wastewater facilities become overwhelmed and have to release untreated water, resulting in about 15 billion gallons of sewage flowing into the city’s rivers each year, one study found.

That’s because about 60% of the city relies on an antiquated combined sewer system that carries both sewage and stormwater to the plants, which are designed to overflow into waterways when they are overwhelmed.

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Increasing the facility’s capacity will “improve the quality of the water in the Delaware River for all Philadelphians and the people of our region,” Water Commissioner Randy Hayman said.

“The planning and design for these large complex capital projects have been many years in the making,” he said.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker praised efforts by Harris and other state lawmakers to bring the money to Philly.

“Thank you for not bringing home slogans. Slogans will not help us fix our aging infrastructure,” Parker said at the news conference. “If our being elected to public office doesn’t translate into dollars and cents to improve the quality of life for people who live in our neighborhoods, this is all for naught.”

Staff writer Frank Kummer contributed to this article.