Andrew Cheng | Phoenix Staff

A piece of debris (not left by SEPTA) in the Crum.

BY SARAH POZGAY

In print | Published March 19, 2009

A Swarthmore resident recently reported construction waste left in the Crum Woods by SEPTA contractors working on a trestle of the R3 Regional Rail line, which runs through the woods. In November, Sarah Chenkin, who walks daily through the Crum, first noticed the two-ton carrying bags filled with construction materials.

Though noting their continued presence in the following months, Chenkin did not realize the materials had been abandoned until one of the bags was blown into the Crum Creek. After fishing this bag out of the Creek on Feb. 13, Chenkin more closely examined the contents of the other bag, which included unused but noticeably ruined cement mix. She also noted that the location of the trash was largely inaccessible to motor vehicles, which otherwise could have been used to remove the materials without aid from SEPTA. The materials were apparently lowered off the tracks to the construction location.

Chenkin’s response to SEPTA’s abandonment of these materials was critical. As a resident of the borough who regularly makes recreational use of the woods, she said this irresponsibility on the part of SEPTA is disappointing. “I feel that it’s incredibly disrespectful because there are numerous people that come to these woods not only from the college, but from the Swarthmore community and other communities that take very good care of the woods,” Chenkin said, citing one community group called the Chester-Ridley-Crum Watersheds Association that annually cleans the stream.

Anne Murphy, Executive Director of the association, explained that it’s not uncommon to encounter construction waste in the creek, whether left by SEPTA or others. She said in an e-mail, “There have been problems with contractors leaving things along Crum Creek in the past, such as giant pieces of PVC pipes used at Smedley Park, which washed down to the stretch by the college. CRC through joint action with the college, managed to get the county‘s contractors to remove and hopefully reuse those pipes … Unfortunately, this happens a lot along streams, since they are visible places, and this is one benefit of the two upcoming cleanups of Crum Creek.”

Chenkin feels that SEPTA should nonetheless be held accountable for the waste. “I think that because it’s SEPTA and because they’re supposed to have a relationship with the college — they have a trestle that goes across the college, and they have a train stop — it seems to me they really should be responsible for removing things that they leave in the woods,” she said.

Though according to Jeff Jabco, Director of Grounds and Coordinator of Horticulture for the Scott Arboretum, SEPTA owns the property on which the rail is built. “They do have the right of way,” he said, adding, “There’s actually a property line.”

On the other hand, the materials blown into the creek certainly constituted illegally deposited trash according to www.cleanpaforests.org. This makes the incident an infraction of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code, which dictates under Title 18, Chapter 65 that littering on private property is punishable by a fine of between $50 to $300, imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both, according to the website.

When informed of the incident and given the opportunity to rectify the situation, SEPTA authorities seem to have responded promptly and effectively to complaints of the litter. The materials were removed within days of their hearing of the trash. SEPTA was notified of the materials by a Phoenix reporter on Monday, and again more formally by Jabco Tuesday morning.

“I put in a call to SEPTA, and they were very responsive. They said they’d put in a work order, and it would be taken care of,” Jabco said. “I was quite surprised. It seemed to be very easy; they were very agreeable.” Jabco explained that if the materials were not taken care of within “a week or two,” he would follow up contact with SEPTA. However, by the end of the working day Tuesday, the site appeared to have been cleared of the materials.

More generally, Jabco said that SEPTA itself is not one of the chief contributors to littering in that part of the woods; instead, trash is often illegally dumped off the tracks themselves by civilians. Citing just one example of this behavior, Jabco said, “We always find computer monitors that people will throw off the trestle or the track up top.” And while a part of the general debris in the area is a result of some dilapidation of the rail structure, this trash is usually picked up during cleanups hosted throughout the year by the arboretum.

“I don’t think SEPTA normally polices along their right of ways to do cleanup; we do that,” Jabco said. One of these cleanups is quickly approaching on Tuesday, April 28. “We welcome students to come and help with that if they’re available,” Jabco said. For those interested in participating in the cleanup, Jabco can be contacted at jjabco1@swarthmore.edu for more information.

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