Philly's next sewage fix may be a tunnel. Council has already widened help with water bills

After 15 years and more than 1,000 rain gardens, tree trenches and other "green" projects, Philadelphia's next big step against sewage overflows may be underground. The Water Department has begun studying a tunnel system to store stormwater 100 to 150 feet below the city, WHYY reported Monday.

This matters to anyone near a creek and to anyone who pays a water bill. Older parts of the city use the same pipes for sewage and stormwater. In heavy rain, the mix overflows into waterways, and the cost of fixing that is paid through water rates.

What WHYY found

• More than 12 billion gallons of raw sewage spill into local waterways in an average year, according to reports WHYY cited. The amount depends on how wet the year is.
• The Water Department's 25-year plan, Green City, Clean Waters, began in 2011 under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the state Department of Environmental Protection enforces. The department says its projects cut overflows by more than 3 billion gallons a year, beating its 15-year targets.
• Tacony and Frankford creeks still fail state and federal water quality standards. One Frankford Creek outfall averages 878 million gallons of overflow a year.
• The city says there is not enough open land in that watershed to add much more green infrastructure, and storms are getting heavier.

The tunnel under study is called the Wingohocking wet weather tunneling plan. The city is evaluating a 5- to 8-mile system and estimates it would cut overflows by 400 million gallons a year. Deputy Commissioner Glen Abrams told WHYY the project is far from a finished design or cost estimate and would take at least another decade. He said it would also help with flooding in Germantown. Separately, the city plans to convert a flood-relief conduit on Cobbs Creek into temporary overflow storage, cutting more than 100 million gallons a year.

On cost, Abrams told WHYY that rates have gone up, that the department does not make a profit, and that it asks only for what it needs to run the system and pay its debt. For scale, WHYY noted that Washington, D.C.'s 5.5-mile tunnel has an $819 million main construction contract.

What our records add

Council does not set water rates; the Water, Sewer and Storm Water Rate Board does, and the ordinance below leaves the exact discount percentages to that board. But Council writes the rules for who qualifies for help.

• The law. Bill 251021, led by 3rd District Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, expands the city's income-based water rate program. Under the certified ordinance, households up to 200% of the federal poverty line can get bills based on income, up from 150%. Households from 200% to 300% must be offered payment plans that keep their total bill, including past-due amounts, affordable.
• When it starts. The ordinance takes effect with the Rate Board's next base-rate change after Jan. 1, 2027.
• Sponsors. Nine: Jamie Gauthier, Anthony Phillips, Rue Landau, Quetcy Lozada, Kendra Brooks, Jim Harrity, Nicolas O'Rourke, Mike Driscoll, Mark Squilla.
• How long it took. It was introduced Nov. 20, 2025, and sat in the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities until it was amended there June 2, 2026, more than six months later. It passed 17-0 on June 11.
• No signature. Mayor Parker did not sign or return it. The Council clerk certified on Sept. 17 that it became law without her signature, under the Home Rule Charter.

What's next

No Council hearing on the tunnel study appears in our calendar, and WHYY did not report a decision date. The new discount tiers start with the Rate Board's next base-rate change after Jan. 1, 2027, so the size of that rate change and the reach of the discounts will be decided around the same time.