Judge orders repair of ‘Big Pipe’ that creates lake on W. Chestnut St.

The flash-flood waters at West Chestnut Street and Franklin Farms Road have been deep enough to strand motorists and attract kayakers, and forceful enough to send up a geyser in the parking lot of the Bob Evans restaurant.
On Thursday, Judge Michael Lucas granted, at the request of Guttman real estate company, a preliminary injunction aimed at abating flooding by replacing a pipe.
The Marathon gasoline station has endured high tides and swift currents that inundate more than half of its fuel pumps. Guttman sued Access Real Estate Co. Inc., doing business as Orion Development RA LXVI Inc. and Eckerd Corp., substituted for the original defendant, Rite Aid, alleging immediate and irreparable harm.
A Rite Aid drugstore operates there, but the property owners and leaseholders are separate legal entities.
Lucas, in a 19-page memorandum and order, called it “the Big Pipe,” five feet diameter and near the border of Canton and North Franklin townships, for a little more than 60 years.
Although the area was farmland, an interchange for Interstate 70 was built nearby, and soon, gas stations, stores, restaurants and a mall followed.
Sink holes directly above and adjacent to the gasoline station began appearing in October 2017 on the drugstore site.
North Franklin Fire Department was called out 32 times between March 29, 2018, and Oct. 7, 2019, due to flooding. On seven occasions, the assistance of Canton Township emergency personnel was required, and video evidence was introduced when the opponents squared off in Washington County Court in mid-May.
“At the dawn of a new spring, presumably seeing red while looking skyward and pondering the prospect of coming storms, James Guttman, a principal of Guttman Realty Co., acted.
“Instead of an ark, Guttman chose litigation,” Lucas waxed eloquent about the complaint.
Orion and Eckerd have not repaired their portion of the crushed Big Pipe, nor have they taken other steps to abate the risk of flash flooding, Lucas determined, calling the threat of immediate harm “plain and obvious.”
“At its core, this case involves a clogged storm pipe buried approximately 24 feet beneath the surface,” the judge wrote.
An employee of Robinson Pipe Cleaning Co. who walked through the interior of the Big Pipe saw that a large part of it had collapsed while co-workers monitored his location via radio frequency from the surface to pinpoint the problem.
Greg W. Banner, a civil engineer, reviewed Robinson’s findings and said the Big Pipe advanced development of the area because it channeled storm water away from the West Chestnut Street commercial corridor and into Chartiers Creek, which flows along and below Franklin Farms Road.
But Banner also said obstruction inside the pipe contributed to water flowing from Orion’s property to the Marathon gasoline station, which has other means to discharge storm water.
Kirit Patel and Santek Solutins Inc., who operate and lease, respectively, the Marathon Service Station, sends employees home when the water rises, and the business must temporarily close until a cleanup is complete.
The judge found that “the public interest compels a prompt solution to this ongoing threat of public safety …. Eckerd and Orion may also benefit” from repairs.
Guttman obtained an estimate that replacing 20 feet of the pipe would cost $53,521.
Lucas ordered the defendants to proceed with Banner’s pipe replacement plan, and scheduled the next proceeding for July 1 to keep abreast of its implementation. The judge ordered Guttman to post a $10,000 bond with the prothonotary, but declined to award Guttman attorney’s fees.
Although Guttman made no claim against upstream landowners or North Franklin Township, Bob Sabot, chairman of the board of North Franklin supervisors, was among those who testified at last month’s hearing via videostream from a law office.
The township, Sabot said, tried unsuccessfully to achieve a settlement.
“The flooding is causing a public nuisance and that is causing serious danger and could cause someone to be killed if in fact the problem is not fixed,” Sabot said in a written statement Thursday.
The road, he added, was again closed Wednesday night due to flooding during a rainstorm.
From the township’s perspective, Sabot said, Lucas’ ruling “was very favorable.”