At the event, Mayor Nutter, Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson praised the plan. We were especially thrilled to hear Mayor Nutter mention our creek!

For more about yesterday’s event and the Green City, Clean Waters plan, check out this article from The Inquirer. From the article:

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson joined Mayor Nutter and other officials at the Fairmount Water Works to sign the agreement for a 25-year plan that has been described as one of the most innovative and ambitious in the nation.

It will transform not only how the city handles storm water – treating it as a resource instead of a waste product – but also how the city looks.

Greenery planted to soak up rainwater will also beautify streets, which could increase property values. Shaded homes will be cooler in summer, which could lower electricity bills. Air quality should improve.

“The city has earned a place as a national and global leader on sustainable innovation and clean water protection,” Jackson said at the signing, noting that it was a fitting way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act this year.

Read the rest here!

1. Rain Barrels (FREE)

Rain Barrels are storage containers that collect rainwater from downspouts. Water can be used for gardening, washing down patio furniture, lawn watering, and other activities that would otherwise use tap water. This allows you to use rainwater instead of paying for tap water! Additionally, by storing rainwater, you can decrease the impact of stormwater runoff to streams, which helps protect our environment and minimize sewer back-ups.

The Energy Coordinating Agency and the Philadelphia Water Department are providing free rain barrels to Philadelphia residents. If you’re interested, sign up to receive a rain barrel here: http://www.phillywatersheds.org/rain-barrel-notification-list

2. Downspout Planters (FREE to residents that meet income eligibility requirements)

A downspout planter is a decorative garden planter filled with gravel, soil, and vegetation that uses rainfall from the roof as irrigation. Downspout planters are connected to the downspout and are designed to slow water as it enters the sewer system. Contact Mike Verla with Rebuilding Together Philadelphia at mike@rebuildingphilly.org or 215-965-0777 to see if you are eligible to receive a FREE downspout planter. Tell him TTF sent you!
photo by Green Treks

3. Street and Yard Trees

Trees bring benefits to the community including shade, increased property, values and peace of mind. They can protect our city and its inhabitants by cleaning the air and water, reducing flooding and energy usage, and moderating city temperatures. If you are interested in receiving a street or yard tree, you can sign up with Philadelphia Parks & Recreations or if there is a Tree Tenders group in your area (check the map), then contact your local Tree Tenders group to work with them.

4. Rain Check (Stormwater Management Tools subsidized by PWD)

Rain Check is a pilot program through which the Philadelphia Water Department helps residents meet the cost of specific residential landscaping improvements that help manage rainwater and beautify homes. Participation in the program will not result in a lower water bill. If you live in Germantown or Frankford and are interested in this project, please contact Ashley Schmid before March 15. Landscaping Tools Include: Porous Pavers, De-paving, Yard Trees, Downspout Planters, and Rain Gardens

Volunteers hard at work planting trees.

TTF created the Wingohocking Tree Tenders in response to the declining tree population in Germantown and a growing demand for street trees. Trees contribute to clean water in our city by absorbing rainwater after it hits the ground. We educate residents on the benefits of trees in urban areas, plan and implement new tree plantings, and care for existing trees. This is a fun and exciting group of people who are focused on beautifying our community!

Thank you so much to the supporters of this effort: Bryner Chevrolet and Fill A Bagel of Jenkintown, High Point Cafe of Mount Airy, Awbury Arboretum, Habitat for Humanity, the Fairmount Organic Recycling Center of Philadelphia Parks & Recreation and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.

Watch volunteers spread mulch around the base of a newly planted tree and give it water.

Watch TTF Executive Director, Julie Slavet pound stakes!

See more photos from this event in this Flickr set.

Stephanie Clymer, TTF’s new AmeriCorps VISTA, and our Education and Outreach Coordinator Ashley Schmid pose with a watershed poster.

Reverend Chester Williams addresses the crowd.


The ribbon is finally cut!

To see all of our photos from the event, check out this Flickr set.

Below is a partial video from the event. In it, you’ll see TTF Executive Director Julie Slavet, part of Reverend William’s speech, and Philadelphia Water Department Commissioner Howard Neukrug’s remarks. Thanks again to all of the fabulous partners and community members who made this night a success!

In the meantime, take a look at this great article about the event on Mt. Airy Patch.

From the article:

It was a celebration at the corner of Clearview Street and East Washington Lane Wednesday evening.

Marlene Anderson, who lives on Clearview Street, said a park at the intersection by the Washington Lane SEPTA station used to be overgrown and generally felt neglected.

That was the case until the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society reclaimed the lot so that it could maintain the ground on the lot. That improved things.

But then the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership (TTF), which has its offices at Awbury Arboretum and works to “mobilize its communities” as stewards of the region’s watershed, according to its website, got involved as well. The community had requested that TTF work to be even more invested in the clean-up effort, so in the summer of 2010, it started to gather input from residents to see what could be done there.

The result was on display Wednesday. The Clearview Community Park has native flowers and grasses planted throughout its environs and is intended to be a place where neighborhood members can gather. There’s also hope that local schools will be able to use it as an outdoor classroom.

Read the whole thing here!

Volunteers with all of the recycling, trash and debris we pulled from the creek! See more pictures here.

This event was part of a larger effort between TTF, the Philadelphia Water Department and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation to restore the health and vitality of our stream corridors by  educating the public about how to keep our streams healthy, improving the physical characteristics of our streams and providing easy access to streamside trails and recreations spots.

We hope you will keep checking back for here more stream events!

PHILADELPHIA – The City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) are ready to begin an exciting chapter of its Green City, Clean Waters Plan. On June 1, the PA Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) and PWD will sign a groundbreaking agreement that will allow the PWD to officially embark on the implementation of its innovative strategy that uses green stormwater infrastructure to substantially reduce Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) to its waterways.

PWD submitted the plan to the US EPA and PADEP in September, 2009, after vetting the plan with an enthusiastic public. Green City, Clean Waters lays the groundwork for the PWD to spend approximately $2 billion over the next 25 years to use primarily green infrastructure, such as stormwater tree trenches, vegetated bumpouts, porous asphalt, rain gardens, sidewalk planters as a means to transform manmade surfaces that repel the rain to Greened Acres which capture rainwater runoff, which then infiltrates, stores and manage the rain as a precious resource — just like Mother Nature. The plan also includes wastewater treatment facility enhancements and pipe renewal and replacement. Green City, Clean Waters works in tandem with the Mayor’s Greenworks Philadelphia vision in order to reinvent Philadelphia as a green, sustainable city of the future.

“We are thrilled and grateful that the DEP has recognized the incredible environmental and public value of this plan and has worked with the City to embrace its vision,” said Mayor Michael Nutter. “As a sustainable approach to stormwater issues, Green City, Clean Waters upholds the tenets of GreenWorks Philadelphia and makes significant progress towards Philadelphia becoming the greenest city in the country.”

“Through the Green City, Clean Waters plan, we seek to achieve a host of tangible environmental, social and economic benefits for Philadelphians while improving the health of the City’s creeks, rivers and urban landscape,” added Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug. “That means not only cleaner water for our citizens, but cleaner air, a higher quality of life and meaningful jobs for future generations.”

PWD has softly launched the plan over the last few years to develop green infrastructure designs that work best in the Philadelphia landscape. These early projects serve as public demonstrations for citizens and provide the PWD and its many partners with early opportunities to monitor and improve the efficiencies of these practices.

A list of featured projects — and information on Green City, Clean Waters can be found at PWD’s website: www.phillywatersheds.org.

This is a fabulous movie but I get the sensation that it is an hour of the problem and a half hour of the solutions. But there is hope — never forget it! What can do you? Start in your own spaces by reducing the demand of water that the privately-owned companies are supplying. Use low-flow showerheads, turn off the faucet when you’re brushing or shaving, don’t water your lawn if your climate can’t support the grass, and be mindful of your water usage (like, don’t wash your car if it’s raining). Americans can easily use 25-30% less water than we do now. Know where you water comes from; know your watershed. Get involved with water issues in your community. Wash you car and water your plants and lawns with rain barrels (and consider that private companies have attempted to privatize rain water! collect it as long as you can!). Plant container gardens. Reduce your use of soaps and other products that pollute water sources. Reach out to your elected officials and let them know that you want safe water to be available to everyone, everywhere. Remember that when you look for life, you look for water. If there’s no water, there’s no life. Let’s keep what water we have in the system and use it wisely!

Buy the movie here:Blue Gold: World Water Wars

Budget Hearing
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 2 p.m.
Philadelphia City Hall, Room 400

Show City Council that YOU support work of the Philadelphia Water Department! If you want Philadelphia to be a green city with clean waters, please join us! Rally for stormwater management and the protection of our drinking water supplies! Thank you for your support.

There were rain barrels:

There were container gardens:

(This one is part of the Office of Community Development’s vacant lot transformation display, “From Blight to Bloom.”)

There were downspout planters:

(This is from the Philadelphia Water Department’s fantastic display, which featured a bunch of awesome stormwater management features.)

There was even porous pavement made from recycled plastic!

(This is part of Temple University Ambler’s “Ecolibrium” display, which incorporates sustainable design features. You can read a great article profiling this exhibit here.)

We are just thrilled to see stormwater management being incorporated into the Flower Show this way! You can see more pictures from the event in this Flickr set.