U.S. Army Corps proposes to build 1,400-foot levee in Eastwick to ease flooding

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is proposing to build a 15-foot high, nearly 1,400-foot-long levee along Cobbs Creek to help control notorious flooding in the Eastwick neighborhood in Philadelphia’s most southwestern corner.

Estimated to cost $13 million, the structure would be designed to address some of the recurring flooding that takes place in the area between 78th and 82nd Streets, from Cobbs Creek to Chelwynde Avenue, and has caused damage to homes, businesses, industry, and infrastructure over the decades.

Destructive flooding in Eastwick can occur during storms — notably Hurricanes Isaias and Ida in recent years — that overflow Cobbs Creek at its confluence with Darby Creek. Both are tidal, which can exacerbate flooding depending on when storms strike.

The levee would be built on the left bank of Cobbs Creek, within the area of Eastwick Regional Park and Clearview Landfill. Army Corps documents show the federal agency worked with the Philadelphia Water Department on the solution.

Officials have wrestled for decades with how to control flooding in Eastwick. Studies over the years have included various suggestions and proposals, and the idea of a levee is not new. But this is the first official proposal for a levee.

Carolyn Moseley, executive director of Eastwick United Community Development Association, said the proposal, “begs a lot of questions.” Moseley is retired from the city, where she worked in community real estate development and planning. She continues to work as an advocate.

“Once they build that levee, it will push other water,” Moseley said. “Where is that water going to go? Is this really feasible, or is it just perpetuating environmental injustice?”

Documents show engineers are looking to design a levee that won’t disturb contaminated material and groundwater located at the Clearview Landfill, which is a Superfund site that’s been remediated and capped. The levee would be built to avoid impacting existing hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste within the area. A retaining wall has already been built at the base of the 100-foot-high landfill to stop flooding from Lower Darby Creek.

The levee proposal is the result of a long-term study of flooding the Army Corps has been conducting for years in Eastwick, which has 15,000 residents and is considered by the agency to be an economically disadvantaged and environmental justice community by the state with up to 88% Black residents on some blocks.

The levee would be earthen and would not eliminate flooding from all sources, according to Army Corps documents. Rather, it would be designed to prevent, on average, millions of dollars in damage a year.

Army Corps officials considered other methods of control but decided against them. Those methods included building a concrete flood wall at Eastwick Park, elevating homes, dry-proofing homes to block water from entering, or buying properties at high risk of flooding. But the Army Corps said some methods could damage aging homes, or “negatively” impact “community cohesion” due to government purchase of some homes. It also considered, but ruled out, altering the creek’s flow.

The Army Corps is proposing to pay for 65% of the project, but that other “nonfederal” sources should pay for the rest.

The Army Corps said the “tentatively selected plan” for the levee would still be a positive for the community but will need official and resident support, “multiple years” to design, and easements on neighboring properties. It would require $67,000 a year to maintain.

The plan is really a draft, however. The Army Corps plans more analysis and will later release a final report.

City officials are hosting a virtual town hall for residents of Eastwick on Thursday evening, and the plan is likely to be discussed. The Army Corps will hold a public meeting on the levee on Oct. 4 at Eastwick Recreation Center at 80th Street and Mars Place.

Moseley, with the Eastwick United Community Development Association, said Delaware County would also likely have to sign off on the proposal, and that other flood-control methods should be considered.

Moseley has worked on a plan with Drexel University and the Stevens Institute of Technology that calls for a complex land-swap deal that would take residents of some streets and put them nearby in new housing built on higher ground. The plan calls for up to 600 homes to be built on 128 acres of upland adjacent to the Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. Lower elevations of the tract would become restored wetlands. However, the plan could be expensive and there is no official proposal for it.

“There are other proposals that should be considered,” Moseley said. “The land swap is one.”

Russell Zerbo, an advocate for the nonprofit Clean Air Council who has been monitoring the Eastwick situation, called the levee “a necessary project,” but said more needs to be done.

“This is a small step,” he said.

This article has been corrected to note that annual maintenance of the proposed levee would run $67,000, not $539,000 as originally stated.