Mar 4, 2018 2 min read

Chartiers Creek is everyone’s responsibility

There seems to be some confusion in Pennsylvania and Washington County as to who is in charge of communities and growth. The recent snow and rainstorms have shown the flaws in past projections of growth. We can go back to the early 1950s and follow mistakes that now pose headaches for municipalities and property owners.

When businessmen had property to develop, the only requirement was approval from their home municipality, even though their projects would affect other communities. For instance, they failed to consider that Chartiers Creek, running through Canonsburg, would someday need to be enlarged as a result of growth in Chartiers, North Strabane and South Strabane townships, along with Canonsburg and Washington.

Water runs downhill, so all communities that have stormwater flowing into Chartiers Creek should be concerned about the undersized creek. The current flooding problem is not the fault of today’s builders and government officials, but a lack of past engineering when a project or change was proposed. All the projects that have been proposed over the decades should have been reviewed by all the communities that would have been affected by them for the benefit of Chartiers Creek. A major county storm sewer layout should have been established to prevent the monster our current governments are trying to tame today. It is very unfair that Houston, the community most affected that has had little growth, is suffering as a result of the growth in surrounding municipalities.

It is time for the county and all the municipalities to form an agency, and require all future developments or business changes be presented for review by this agency and an engineer. Then, they should approve a resolution stating how each municipality will assume responsibility for additional water flowing into Chartiers Creek.

Joann Diesel

North Franklin