Speak your peace : basement flooding

You’ve probably heard about some of your neighbors having unwelcome water coming into their basements recently. Many of us, unfortunately, have first-hand knowledge of basement flooding problems.

EPX members have very important information to share with the Philadelphia Water Department and the PA Department of Environmental Protection because of these first-hand experiences with sewer overflows and basement backups. Here’s what you can do:

Penn Environment has provided us with some information and notified us about how to speak up about your experience, if you’ve had flooding:

Philadelphia Sewage Treatment Plant Permit Reissuance Alert
The PADEP has published the draft wastewater treatment plant discharge permits for Philadelphia’s 3 sewage treatment plants in the PA Bulletin and is accepting comments until November 7. Your help is needed to convince PADEP to strengthen the permit requirements and achieve quicker and steadier progress towards eliminating sewage pollution in Philadelphia’s waterways. This relates specifically to the sewage back-ups into basements after heavy rains and the lack of consideration this has been given when new construction projects in the area are proposed. Please send a comment letter today! Comments should reference NPDES Permits PA0026662, PA 0026671 and PA 00266809, and should be sent to:

Jennifer Fields
Water Management Program
PA Department of Environmental Protection, Southeast Regional Office
2 East Main Street
Norristown, PA 19401

Include your personal observations or concerns based on your own first-hand knowledge!

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Enforcement Alert about basement backups
The EPA is calling for cities to do a much better job enabling community residents to report backups, get them analyzed to see what the cause is, and take responsibility if they are caused by the sewer system, rather than some blockage in the homeowner’s sewer line.