City receiving $145,000 to alleviate flooding
Washington Councilman Joe Manning was among the many who dealt multiple times with a flooded home last year, and had it not been for his former colleagues from the fire department aiding him with a submersible pump in June, he’s sure his basement flooding would have reached the first floor.
Manning’s reaction when he learned the state was coming through with $145,000 to help alleviate flooding from Washington’s Catfish Creek?
“I’m thrilled!” he exclaimed Thursday.
“This is great news. I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear this. This affects so many people.”
Following a year with unprecedented rain and catastrophic flooding, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced $3 million worth of grants to help reduce and control stormwater.
Locally, the Catfish Creek upper watershed restoration project is aimed at reducing sediment runoff, controlling stormwater and stabilizing 1,580 feet of the waterway.
Manning, a Seventh Ward resident, said Upper Catfish Creek is in the vicinity of Houston Street, moving downstream toward College Field, Chestnut Street and Railroad Street.
Manning said once the city receives the grant, he would expect the next step to be meeting with Army Corps of Engineers officials to discuss the best use of the funds, whether it be for dredging or widening the creek at what he called “choke points,” or construction of retention ponds.
Exactly one year ago, a cataclysmic forecast called for torrential rain changing to ice and several inches of snow.
Floods returned in February, June and September, contributing to a record-setting year of precipitation that was nearly 20 inches more than normal.
Manning was an organizer of what was dubbed a flood summit last year “to try to brainstorm and come up with a solution for all of us,” Manning said of the communities in the Chartiers Creek watershed.
The rest of the money will be distributed to eight other projects in other parts of the state.
Many of the projects involve streambank restoration to repair and restore fish habitat and prevent future erosion.
Other projects are for floodplain restoration, which allows stormwater to spread out and slow down so it can be absorbed into the groundwater, rather than rushing over stream banks.
“The storms of 2018 showed the devastation that rushing floodwaters can cause for communities,” Wolf said in a news release.
“In addition to rebuilding what was lost, it is also important to prepare for the future, and these projects will help protect communities, and in many cases, reduce water pollution as well.”
The city grant came through the Growing Greener program, which is sustained through $4-per-ton municipal waste disposal fees.