Graves at Delaware County cemetery flood due to drain pipe issue, and loved ones are outraged: "This is horrible"

A glorious blue sky was over Collingdale's Mount Zion Cemetery Tuesday. But down the hill, the privately owned final resting place for thousands of people can't seem to solve what the owner said has been a nightmare: An unknown number of graves are flooded. 

The so-called pond can triple in size. The ground is a soggy mess. 

Dee Wooten of Germantown spotlighted the unfortunate situation in a six-minute-long Facebook post.

"This is horrible," she said during the post. 

Wooten's mother and grandfather, a Navy veteran, are laid to rest at Mount Zion.

"I never pictured one day I wouldn't be able to find them because they're in a pond," she said, getting choked up. "I can't understand how that can go on for so long and nobody does anything."

Wooten said perpetual care fees attached to her loved ones' graves should be enough to mitigate the flooding. Sources in Collingdale Borough government said the cemetery has been inundated for years. Solutions and money are elusive.

"You pay thousands of dollars for someone to care for someone's resting space, and this is what they do?" Wooten said.

Seven years ago, CBS News Philadelphia reported that a powerful storm dislodged a drain pipe at Mount Zion Cemetery. That's the problem, according to Joseph Barbine, the cemetery owner.

Barbine said the flooding has persisted ever since. He said there's no money to clean out the pipe, clogged with mud, to allow a small creek to flow to the Darby Creek. Video from 2019 showed vaults exposed and a large drain pipe out of place. 

Collingdale officials said there's little they can do because the cemetery is private property. 

Barbine remains hopeful that a grant or private donations might fix the problem once and for all.