EDGMONT TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Flooding in Delaware County is taking center stage as state lawmakers try to avoid the kind of catastrophe seen in recent years. Money is already flowing in from the Commonwealth Financing Authority to improve infrastructure in a Delco neighborhood that has been prone to flooding.
Runnymeade Farms, in Edgmont Township, will get two state grants for flood mitigation and watershed restoration totaling more than $500,000 to help literally keep the neighborhood above water, said Delaware County Republican Rep. Chris Quinn, who supported the grant applications.
Quinn says he fought to secure the money for “an area that has really struggled with some severe flooding.”
He says the effects of poor storm drainage systems are something the people of his district feel firsthand when the region is hit with severe rain.
“Imagine walking out of your house and trying to get into your car, and your whole area is flooded — even into some basements at times,” Quinn said.
He says the infrastructure flooding problem is rampant in his district. “With each flood, with each passing storm it gets worse and worse, so it has to be replaced.”
“Once it collapses, it becomes more of a dam than a pipe,” Quinn said.
The projects include the construction of a storm drain network, adding about 1,000 feet of new piping, removing damaged stormwater structures, and fixing hundreds of collapsed drainage pipe in the Sawgrass Stream Valley.
Old infrastructure and flooding is a problem he sees across the rest of the state, as well, so he’s also pushing for other projects to use funds already put aside for them.
“So this is just the first one. We have a couple other projects over in Middletown Township, where we are having issues, and hopefully, as we move forward, we’ll be able to get some additional dollars for some of those issues as well,” he said.
“Trying to fund Growing Greener, which was literally $756 million, is going to help lots of communities across Pennsylvania, and it’s something I’ve been fighting for since 2016.”