TTF’s Steph Clymer poses for a picture with some of the volunteers. Photo courtesy of Enon Tabernacle Photography Ministry.

Meanwhile, other members of the TTF team worked with volunteers from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, Friends of Vernon Park and Villanova University to clean and green Vernon Park: raking leaves, picking up trash, building protective fences around young trees, and cleaning debris out of storm drains.

Volunteers build a fence around a young tree in Vernon Park.

TTF also worked with Mount Moriah Baptist Church, Habitat for Humanity and local residents to clean up trash and debris in Southeast Germantown. We removed over two dozen bags of trash and recycling and talked with local community members about the importance of clean streets and how they relate to our water quality.

Volunteers pose for a picture at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church.

Learn more about the day of service here. Thanks to all of the great volunteers who came out to help clean up our watershed!

Volunteers hard at work raking leaves.

TTF hosted an information table and fun activities for kids.

The day’s program included speeches from Mayor Michael Nutter, Parks & Recreation Commissioner Mike DiBerardinis, Water Department Commissioner Howard Neukrug, Barbara McCabe from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation, Maitreyi Roy from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, TTF’s own Julie Slavet, and Ruth Seeley from Friends of Vernon Park.

Mayor Nutter thanks volunteers.

After the speaking program, the crowd cheered as Mayor Nutter and stakeholders cut the ribbon for the brand new rain garden!

Mayor Nutter cuts the ribbon.

The event was covered on ABC 6 and Fox 29, as well as in this great NewsWorks article. You can also see pictures from the event in this Flickr set.

Thank you so much to everyone who worked so hard on this project, and especially to TTF’s outgoing AmeriCorps VISTA, Lesley Saliga, whose hard work and dedication made the whole project possible!

Check out more pictures from the project here.

Read more about our work with Cedarbrook Middle School here.

In Cheltenham Township, Steph spent the day with Cedarbrook Middle School teachers, over 100 seventh graders, and Nancy Minich from NAM Planning & Design, LLC. We worked together to plant hundreds of trees and shrubs in order to create a riparian buffer and outdoor classroom along Rock Creek behind Cedarbrook Middle School. Students had the opportunity to apply concepts they are learning in the classroom, and topics of discussion included earthworms, plant physiology, stream ecology, and stormwater runoff. Students also discussed ways to reduce the litter blowing down the hill from their recess area.

Cedarbook students plant along the sloped hill leading to the creek.

Cedarbrook students learn how to plant properly.

You can read more about our work with Cedabrook Middle School here. Check out more pictures from this planting in this Flickr set.

Meanwhile, at Vernon Park in Germantown, Lesley worked with a small group to prepare for our rain garden installation, which will take place at the Love Your Park: Fall Edition event on November 5. (More information on our Events page.) This event was a great example of citywide collaboration: Ray from Philadelphia Parks & Recreation expertly controlled a backhoe provided by the Philadelphia Water Department. Rod from AKRF supervised the entire project, including pickaxe-wielding representatives from TTF, Delaware Valley Earth Force, Friends of Vernon Park and the Philadelphia City Planning Commission.

Rod and Ray discuss the excavation strategy.

Dan and Andy from Delaware Valley Earth Force do some digging.

Lesley from TTF commands a dirt-filled wheelbarrow!

Read more about our work in Vernon Park here, and check out more Vernon Park rain garden preparation pictures in this Flickr set.

Thanks to all of our great partners and volunteers!

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!

TTF will be working throughout the month of August to set-up regularly scheduled cleanups along the Tacony Creek so stay tuned for more opportunities to lend a helping hand! Check our Events page for details soon!

Check out more photos here!

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.

Lesley and I made a short film about how dumping and pollution affect our waterways. We hope it’s just the start of environmental videos from TTF and our partners. Some notes about this film: it is meant to be provocative. We wanted to convey that everyone’s actions affect our waterways. Water departments around the country work really hard to clean the water so that it is drinkable but our actions make their work harder and more costly. If we didn’t have these hardworking folks working to clean our water, it would come out of our taps looking like it does at the end of our video. We all have a responsibility to keep our water clean. Also, for people who think that they can opt-out of this system by purchasing bottled water instead, please know that bottled water comes from our waterways as well! Also, bottled water isn’t as heavily regulated as municipal tap water.

No Dumping by Lesley and Katie:

Check out some of the other videos made by participants in this workshop below. Once all of the videos are completed, we’ll be hosting a screening, so stay tuned for more info!

Save Our Children by Carolyn:

Blindy Obey Liberty by Kenyatta:

Politics of Unemployment by Garret:

Thanks so much to everyone who participated and especially to Laura Deutch of Messages in Motion, who facilitated the program!

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.