Former sewer plant site could see stormwater project
Local towns are signing on to a joint program that could help improve a property in North Wales, and neighbors could see work there starting soon.
Borough council voted ahead a grant agreement meant to clear the way for work on a stormwater project on Elm Avenue.
“This grant is a three-year grant, so it runs for 2026 through 2029, and it’s just for design and permitting. It might take a few years after that for it to be ready for construction,” said Erin Landis, water programs manager for Wissahickon Trails.
Over the past decade, North Wales has worked with several neighboring municipalities and with Wissahickon Trails on a regional water quality plan that lists projects meant to improve water quality, most recently hearing details in early 2024 of a plan to remove phosphorus from local waterways by taking part in a regional Wissahickon Clean Water Partnership that is planning and targeting dozens of water-related projects across the Wissahickon watershed.
“Way back when, when we started this, Wissahickon Trails had come out — along with other specialists that were appointed — to identify areas in each municipality that could be utilized to do some of these larger projects,” borough Manager Christine Hart said.
Most recently, Landis and Hart told council last week, that partnership has secured a $125,000 grant from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection Growing Greener grant program meant to tackle the first step toward one of those projects, with approval of a landowner agreement needed before the first work can begin.
“We will be hiring contractors, folks like surveyors and arborists, to look at the types of trees and vegetation on these properties, and gathering more information about what would be the best use of the property, in terms of community and water quality,” she said.
The property where a project could be done is a roughly rectangular parcel between Elm Avenue in North Wales and the Parkside Place complex in Upper Gwynedd, where North Wales once operated a sewer treatment plant until it was sold to Upper Gwynedd and decommissioned in the late 2000s. The Wissahickon Trails group has developed a sketch plan of a possible project: developing a “constructed wetland” with tree clusters, mounds, embankments, and stabilized channels filled with vegetation meant to better absorb water and reduce runoff into the rest of the watershed.
Council President Mark Tarlecki asked for a summary of the stormwater management goals meant to be accomplished, and Landis said the goal of the project would be to meet pollutant reduction requirements by reducing stormwater flow and increasing infiltration.
“In a completely natural space, most rainwater will be absorbed into the ground where it falls. However, when we pave over and build lots of buildings, the stormwater system just flows the stormwater directly to our streams, which causes a lot of issues,” she said.
“It carries pollution, it causes erosion, it causes flooding, because it’s sending all that stormwater straight to our streams. So the stormwater projects and features we look at, often are trying to mimic natural systems, and infiltrate water into the ground, because we think that’s the best way to reduce flooding, as well as pollution, and it’s the best for our streams too,” Landis said.
Wissahickon Trails has performed a watershed-wide study of projects that could benefit the stream, “about 90 projects” overall, and prioritized them by environmental and cost value, and Elm Avenue ranked at the top of the list.
“This project is essentially the number one priority project for the watershed. This area has the potential to capture stormwater from over 200 acres, because a lot of the borough as well as part of Upper Gwynedd flow through this area,” she said.
“That has the potential to have a huge impact. In this built-up watershed, there’s not a lot of spaces to have these big projects,” Landis said.
Hart said the Ninth Street work should help the town meet its mandates for the current five-year permit cycle, and the Elm project could qualify for the next round.
Hart said once the borough and township agree to the grant landowner agreement, Wissahickon Trails would send the surveyors and other experts to assess the property, then report back once that work is done. North Wales borough council voted unanimously to approve the agreement, and Upper Gwynedd’s commissioners unanimously approved the same agreement during their meeting on March 3.
North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on March 10 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.NorthWalesBorough.org.
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