A series looking at Philly’s fastest-growing neighborhood

When neighborhoods undergo rapid development, their residents expect “Pardon Our Dust” signs and reassurances from the developers that the fork lifts and cranes will shortly disappear.

But for residents of Northern Liberties, those assurances don’t mean much when homeowners believe that sediment from construction finds its way into the city sewers –sewers that have problems of their own from faulty infrastructure.

Sediment clogs the sewers. (Hilary Regan)

The sewers in Northern Liberties don’t have separate pipes for storm water and sanitary waste when it rains, which means the infrastructure can’t handle the accumulation of water. The water then backs up to where it came from — the basements of Northern Liberties homeowners.

The backup has caused numerous problems for these residents, which I’ve chronicled before. Flooded basements have led to a number of concerns that have plagued residents for years: deleterious health effects from resulting mold, financial repercussions from having to replace water-heating systems and phone lines, and endless frustration with an antiquated system.

Sewer water floods the streets. (Hilary Regan)

The “construction run-off,” Northern Liberties Neighborhood Association member Hilary Regan said, is one of the key contributors to sewer buildup. Because the construction sites haven’t been properly managed, there’s no way to prevent the sewers from being clogged with debris, which, in turn, facilitates water backup into basements.

The Philadelphia Water Department and Pennsylvanian’s Department of Environmental Protection claim they don’t know why basements continue to flood, even when storms don’t occur. But to aggravated homeowners like Ubirajara Nascimento, those statements are tantamount to thinly-veiled excuses.

“They know what the problem is,” Nascimento said. “They just don’t want to fix it. There’s no concern for the infrastructure, and the neighborhood keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

Unfortunately for Nascimento, it doesn’t look the situation’s going to change any time soon. The main developer of the area, Bart Blatstein of Tower Investments, Inc., refuses to comment on the NLNA’s concerns, and the Philadelphia Water Department won’t admit any wrongdoing, stating simply that it’s working on ways to figure out why the problem is happening.

Clearly, there are issues that need to be resolved. But without cooperation from city authorities, very little can get done. For Northern Liberties residents, that means coping with flooded basements — no matter how many times they complain.

Check back soon for the next installment, a look at Northern Liberties’ cultural identity.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 9th, 2007 at 1:18 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.