U.S. Sen. Bob Casey speaks at a press conference next to the Paxton Creek in Harrisburg.
A major Harrisburg waterway restoration project that has been years in the making will take its first step forward.
At a press conference on Monday, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey announced that the federal government awarded the city and Capital Region Water $1.25 million to help mitigate flooding at Paxton Creek.
“This, of course, will save lives and protect the livelihoods of so many citizens here in Dauphin County,” Casey said. “The need to restore the creek was so great that it earned not just one, but two congressionally directed spending grants.”
A “Paxton Creek Master Plan” was first developed by PennDOT in 2018 and laid out changes that would take 133 acres out of the 100-year flood plan and partially remove a couple hundred more acres, also making the area more attractive for redevelopment. The Paxton Creek runs for 6.2 miles from Wildwood Park to the Susquehanna River watershed.
The federal funding announced on Monday includes two grants–$500,000 in funding for CRW and $750,000 for the Harrisburg Redevelopment Authority.
The project includes two major pieces. One project is the de-channelization, widening the creek to allow it to hold a greater water volume and restoring it to its natural course. Additionally, the Paxton Creek interceptor, which runs parallel to the creek and conveys combined sewage from over half of the city and surrounding townships, needs to be replaced as it is over 120 years old and severely compromised.
Paxton Creek
The de-channelization project is estimated to cost over $100 million and the interceptor replacement will likely cost $25 million, according to Charlotte Katzenmoyer, CEO of CRW.
The $1.25 million represents only a drop in the bucket of the total project cost, Mayor Wanda Williams noted, but it represents a start.
With the federal funding, CRW and the city can begin preliminary engineering and design work for the Paxton Creek project.
“All told, this is going to be 1% of what could be a $100 million project when its all said and done, but that 1% may be the most important because it gets us off the ground,” Williams said. “I would like everyone to picture a Cameron Street corridor that is open to more affordable housing, business development and residential revitalization.”
And while this funding may help get the project started, Casey said that there’s a possibility for more federal assistance down the road.
“We’re not done advocating for more funding,” he said. “We want to use every possible federal resource that we can turn to.”
Katzenmoyer explained that CRW is required to replace the Paxton Creek interceptor by 2026, as part of a partial consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).
The Paxton Creek project is part of CRW’s City Beautiful H2O Program Plan, the organization’s long-term plan to fulfill requirements of the consent decree and to control its combined sewer overflow into the Susquehanna River and Paxton Creek.
Overall, CRW’s City Beautiful plan is estimated to cost $450 million and includes creating a retention treatment basin, using green infrastructure and separating stormwater and domestic sewage conveyance, among other initiatives.
For more information about the Paxton Creek project, visit Capital Region Water’s website.
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