https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
    • Latest videos
    • Product Guides
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

Public Works & Utilities


Philadelphia’s ‘Green’ Formula Fosters Swimmable, Drinkable Water

Philadelphia’s ‘Green’ Formula Fosters Swimmable, Drinkable Water

Philadelphia's 'Green' Formula Fosters Swimmable, Drinkable Water By Neal Peirce Big pipes to drain off stormwater arent necessarily your friend. They
  • Written by American City & County Administrator
  • 22nd August 2006

Philadelphia’s ‘Green’ Formula Fosters Swimmable, Drinkable Water

By Neal Peirce

Big pipes to drain off stormwater arent necessarily your friend. They may even be the reason the stream or river near your home isnt fit for swimming.

The message may sound strange to communities recently hit by torrential rains, or threatened by oncoming tropical storms.

But the green revolutionaries of Philadelphias Office of Watersheds are expounding a new philosophy of sustainable water management — to adapt city parks, roadways, school sites, lawns and yards so that they absorb and slowly filter out as much rainfall and stormwater as feasible.

Why? First, to stop stormwater from flooding drainage systems and sending untreated sewage into local rivers and streams.

Second, to minimize the fast, storm-induced runoff by pollutants that gather on a citys concrete and asphalt surfaces — litter, oil and antifreeze leaked from cars, pesticides, corroding metals from junkyards, bacteria from pet waste. All these are top sources for the generalized, non-point pollution that makes so many local beaches dangerous for swimming (14,602 closing and advisory days last year, reports the Natural Resources Defense Council).

Finally, heavy storms choke off streams and pollute the waterways with sediment from scraped-off land, construction sites and improperly protected farm fields.

Cities usual way of dealing with stormwater has been to collect and move it off site as rapidly as possible, often with big, expensive tanks and tunnels to hold the overflow and its sediments as long as feasible. Several major U.S. cities are building precisely such facilities right now.

But the Philadelphians are aiming instead to make their entire city into a kind of great green sponge, an urban ecosystem that can handle its stormwaters and wastes far more naturally and, in the process, assure clean and reliable water for fishing, swimming and drinking.

The holistic thinking has been spearheaded since 1998 by Howard Neukrug, founding director of the citys Office of Watersheds. Rather than focusing on new pipes, for example, Neukrugs office puts a priority on cleanup, preservation and easy public access to the parks.

Why? The Schuylkill River and several of its tributary streams, source of Philadelphias water supply, run through massive Fairmount Park and other city parks. Parklands, says Philadelphia watersheds planner Glen Abrams, are like kidneys, performing natural restorative work for a citys water systems. But if streambeds are degraded and trash-filled, if citizens cant enjoy the waters, wholl fight to keep the parks waterways clean, fishable and swimmable?

Across the city, the watersheds office pushes its green, natural agenda. It advocates stream daylighting, for example — bringing old streams, buried in culverts, back to the surface and recreating their banks and natural habitat. It encourages environmental stewardship of Philadelphias large supply of vacant land, pushing for introduction of little swales and bowls and berms to make the sites better short-term repositories of stormwater.

Theres a campus parks initiative to help the public schools redeem ugly asphalt-paved schoolyards with greenery and renew basketball courts with newly-developed asphalt that rather amazingly absorbs rather than repels water.

The agency is also working with the street department to redesign traffic triangles, street medians and right-of-way land to minimize runoff and absorb water more naturally. Its advocating rainwater harvesting — rainspout barrels homeowners can attach to water downspouts and use later for garden watering. Its pushing urban gardening, advocating green roofs, creating nature-friendly master plans for former industrial riverfronts. In what they call Operation PIGSTY, inspectors are being pushed to crack down on heavily polluting scrap yards.

And when the watershed crew discovered a huge colony of geese flocking onto land above a water intake and dropping as much as 36 tons of waste there annually, it repelled the unwelcome feathered visitors by planting high meadow grasses that geese studiously avoid. Philadelphias quandary is that the Schuylkill flows over 100 miles, draining portions of 10 counties and 2,000 square miles before it reaches the city. Once one of Americas most polluted rivers, its recovered significantly through federally mandated point-source cleanup of major pollutants. Yet the river is still plagued by stormwater runoff, bad agricultural practices (like cows standing in streams), abandoned mine drainage and sewage overflows.

So the Philadelphia Water Department conducted a nationally recognized source assessment, including analysis of water quality at 52 intake points up and down the entire river. More than 3,000 pollution points were discovered, and 100 top cleanup priorities named. Then the Philadelphians formed a Schuylkill Action Network with federal and state agencies and dozens of upstream communities. The network is pinpointing issues from abandoned mine discharges to agricultural abuses. Neukrug also warns against suburban sprawl that destroys buffering landscapes and increases stormwater runoff.

The effort is new, its challenges immense. But heres an exciting national model: how a city enhances its environment, safeguards its water lifelines, engages federal and state agencies, and leads a region.

Source: Stateline.org.

Tags: ar mag Public Works & Utilities

Most Recent


  • infrastructure procurement
    Taking a higher priority
    When budgets become tight, and unforeseen challenges or emergencies occur, government entities must re-prioritize operational needs, often deferring infrastructure projects and facility maintenance. However, as buildings continue to age, and the backlog of maintenance and upgrade projects becomes longer, infrastructure is taking a higher priority for municipalities, school districts and higher education institutions. Federal funding […]
  • Exemplary public servant
    The importance of building relationships: 2022 Exemplary Public Servant Molly McLoughlin
    Public service is a calling, and people who enter it feel strongly about serving. Procurement, on the other hand, is not necessarily a field one is called to, but the right person can use procurement skills to benefit their community. That is the case of Molly McLoughlin, former director of facilities for the Boulder Valley […]
  • cloud services
    Cloud services: A cloudy forecast for state and local governments
    Cloud services continues to grow exponentially making it flourish into a multi-billion-dollar industry. According to a survey by Synergy Research Group, the global cloud infrastructure services market grew by 35 percent in 2020, with the top five cloud providers (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba and IBM) capturing more than 70 percent of the market […]
  • Rebuild
    With an historic investment in public spaces, Philadelphia’s Rebuild program is committed to equity in the process
    Jobs in the construction industry are family-sustaining careers that have proven to lift families out of intergenerational poverty. Historically speaking, those same opportunities have traditionally been reserved for white men. According to the Bureau of Labor Statics, in 2020 more than 60 percent of construction workers were white, with only 5 percent identifying as Black […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • 10 reasons why local governments should outsource all IT: Post pandemic view
  • How local governments can improve bridge projects through strategic engagement
  • NLC releases State of Cities 2021 report
  • How local governments can get ahead of the infrastructure wave: Strategies to mitigate risk

White papers


Digital Government Service Delivery – A Guide for Buyers

23rd February 2023

Modernizing government services for today’s resident expectations

24th January 2023

Preparing Your Community Now for the Next Generation of Older Adults

18th October 2022
view all

Webinars


Future-proof Your State and Local Government Finance: 5 Key Trends for 2023

6th February 2023

How To: Evaluate Digital Government Service Delivery Technologies

23rd January 2023

Using Technology to Enhance Communications

29th November 2022
view all

PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

GALLERIES


Gallery: America’s top 10 bicycle-friendly cities

20th March 2023

Gallery: Top 10 hardest working American cities

8th March 2023

Gallery: Top 10 least expensive American metro areas

24th February 2023
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

St. Louis Communities Boost Great Energy Savings dlvr.it/SlFyV0

21st March 2023
AmerCityCounty

How Can Public Sector Best Tackle Their Unique Storage Needs? dlvr.it/SlFxXk

21st March 2023
AmerCityCounty

Is your agency’s procurement team sidelined during the infrastructure procurement process? dlvr.it/SlC0VM

20th March 2023
AmerCityCounty

The importance of building relationships: 2022 Exemplary Public Servant Molly McLoughlin dlvr.it/SlBcmr

20th March 2023
AmerCityCounty

Business group works to help Hispanic-owned enterprises get their share of public sector contracts dlvr.it/Sl361G

17th March 2023

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2023 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.