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Responsible Preservation, Inc. 
135 South 19th Street, Suite 200 
Philadelphia, PA 19103 
215-988-9550 
rpi.wissahickon@gmail.com

Press Release: January 19, 2023: -  Responsible Preservation, Inc. a Philadelphia environmental foundation receives Pennsylvania Growing Greener Grant

Responsible Preservation, Inc.  (“RPI”) a Chestnut Hill 501 C3 charitable organization devoted to addressing environmental issues that affect Northwest Philadelphia and the Wissahickon Watershed announced today has been awarded a $315,219.00 Growing Greener Watershed Protection Grant (“Growing Greener grant”) from the Pennsylvania State Department of Environmental Protection. This grant will fund the design development and preparation of engineering documentation for the restoration and stabilization of the 6,000-foot stretch of the Wissahickon Creek between Northwestern and Germantown Avenues. 

The Growing Greener grant will enable environmental engineering firm Aterra Solutions (“Aterra”), led by Joe Bellini, PE and Geomorphologist Shandor Szalay of SJS Consulting, to continue the work they began last year for RPI. At that time, they evaluated the extent of the environmental degradation occurring in this part of the creek with the goal of determining the causes of the physical changes to the creek path that have resulted in significant erosion, depositing sediment that impacts the city’s water supply, leading to costs for water customers. 

Aterra’s initial report of June 2022 was part of the application for the state grant. In the report Bellini and his team described changes to the immediate environment in terms of increased land development and paving as well as climate-change causing larger and more powerful storms. These forces were further affected by the recent design for the new Germantown Avenue Bridge that widened the channel and in turn accelerated the creek flow as it passes under the bridge toward Harpers Meadow. Recent increased erosion corresponds to the construction of the new bridge in 2003. 

 

Environmental attorney Robert Shusterman, president of RPI, expressed gratitude to the state noting that “This grant enables us to continue work that has been funded by near neighbors and the foundation. Good citizenship requires engagement,” he said “and state assistance demonstrates the value of our previous work.” Community neighbors raised funds and provided legal and historical research and access to their properties for Aterra’s field surveys of the creek bed and banks. This in turn led to hydraulic modeling that explains the changes to the creek and will lead to long-term stabilization work.  

 

As Aterra explains, the long-range goal of the project is to devise means to restore the creek bed in such a way as to provide long-term stability while improving bordering stream bank conditions, reducing the sediment loads by reducing erosion, and reducing up- and down-streaming flooding risk. This phase of the work that will be funded with the Growing Greener grant will undertake the engineering and design strategies that can be implemented with future grants that will have a community match portion. 

 

The “Wissahickon Creek, Stream Assessment / Reach in Chestnut Hill Community, Philadelphia" (June 22, 2022) and the presentation that illustrates the issues are available at the RPI website https://www.responsiblepreservation.org/

 

Project description from application:  

 

“The design approach will comprehensively address the observed erosion by placing the stream into a lower energy state through channel realignment and lowering. Unlike bank stabilization projects, this approach solves the root problem of excess slope and stream power that is the underlying cause of rapid stream migration rates. The channel bed lowering will also provide an opportunity to create and lower floodplain surface, resulting in significant flood mitigation benefits for adjacent Chestnut Hill College, a notable academic institution in northwest Philadelphia, and the creation/restoration of 9 acres of floodplain forest. The College has experienced significant damage to parking lots, ball fields, and other infrastructure during recent years. Additionally, the project will contribute to flood mitigation downstream. Notably the project is just above the Wissahickon Creek Park, which has suffered significant damage to historically significant structures from flooding in the past 10-20 years in additional to multiple slope failures along the Wissahickon Creek that pose significant public safety risks.”

 

Inquiries and funding support are welcome.

 

For further information, please contact Responsible Preservation Inc. at: rpi.wissahickon@gmail.com

 

January 19, 2023

Responsible Preservation, Inc. -

135 South 19th Street, Suite 200 Philadelphia, PA 19103

215.988.9522

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