DelCorps outlines $300 million plan to cut combined sewer overflows in Chester

DelCorps on Monday presented a long-term control plan to the City of Chester that it says will sharply reduce combined sewer overflows into Chester Creek and Ridley Creek, relying on targeted sewer separation, deep underground "linear storage" tunnels and widespread repairs to leaky lines.

"We are DelCorps," said Michael DeSantis, introducing the proposal and noting the plan has been submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Justice and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for review. DeSantis said the plan does not ask the city to change sewage facility planning and that DelCorps expects regulatory approval after review.

The plan combines two main approaches, Charlie Hurst, DelCorps' director of engineering, told residents and city officials: run limited, strategic new separated storm and sanitary pipes in neighborhoods with recent infill development (identified as CSO 5, 7 and 8), and build a deep conveyance and storage system along the two creeks to hold excess wet-weather flow until it can be treated. "There's a 14 foot diameter pipe that stores 10,000,000 gallons of water," Hurst said, describing a trenchless microtunneling approach and drop shafts that would connect overloaded sewers to the tunnel.

DelCorps gave specific targets. Hurst said that some discharge locations that now overflow dozens of times per year—one site he identified as more than 50 times annually and another as over 70—would be reduced to an average of about six overflows per year once projects are complete. DeSantis said DelCorps' Western Regional plant is designed for 50,000,000 gallons per day but has recorded flows exceeding 110,000,000 during major storms; under the plan he said the plant would operate at about 122,000,000 gallons per day during wet weather.

Cost and schedule: Hurst said the high-level estimated cost of the program is $300,000,000, to be shared among DelCorps customers on a flow basis. He noted that City of Chester residents currently represent about 6.3% of total DelCorps flow on an equivalent dwelling unit basis. DelCorps told the room the planning phase extends through 2035 and that the work responds to obligations from a 2015 consent decree with federal and state regulators.

On rates and budget impacts, DeSantis said DelCorps' board has a five-year capital plan and is looking at roughly 4–5% annual increases as a planning assumption; he emphasized the authority's fiduciary responsibilities and directed residents with detailed budget questions to upcoming listening sessions and published materials.

Hurst stressed construction methods designed to limit surface disruption. He said separation work in the targeted neighborhoods will be limited to a fraction of streets and that much of the new deep storage conveyance would be installed trenchlessly, with surface shafts only at selected locations.

DelCorps staff announced a series of listening sessions and facility tours, and posted plan documents and contact information via a QR code and printed materials at the meeting. "We're here for your feedback," DeSantis said, urging residents to follow up if questions could not be answered at the session.

Next steps: DelCorps said it will pursue final design, land acquisition and phased construction pending regulatory approval and clarified that the authority will continue annual I&I (inflow and infiltration) repairs in the interim. The plan was presented for information and community feedback; no final municipal approvals were requested at Monday's meeting.