A watershed is all of the land that drains into a specific body of water.
The purple area on the map below shows the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed. Any water that falls on the purple area of the map will eventually run into the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Creek.
[Please click on the image above for a larger, scrollable and zoomable version of the map.]
Location
The 29 square mile Tookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed is located in southeast Pennsylvania, within and just outside the city of Philadelphia. The Tookany Creek section lies within Montgomery County and the Tacony-Frankford Creek section lies within Philadelphia County. Municipalities in our watershed include: Abington Township, Cheltenham Township, Jenkintown Borough, Montgomery County, Philadelphia County, Rockledge Borough, and Springfield Township.
Tookany Creek
The Tookany Creek section of the watershed (north of Cheltenham Ave.) contains 25.37 total linear miles of stream. These include the headwater tributaries in Abington and Cheltenham townships, as well as in Jenkintown and Rockledge Boroughs, all in Montgomery County. The six main tributaries are:
- Baeder Creek
- Jenkintown Creek
- Leeches Run
- Main Stem
- Mill Run
- Rock Creek
Tacony-Frankford Creek
The Tacony-Frankford section of the watershed (south of Cheltenham Ave.) contains 6.8 total linear miles of stream. The Tookany Creek is renamed the Tacony Creek as it leaves Montgomery County and enters Philadelphia at Cheltenham Avenue. Tacony Creek then becomes Frankford Creek when it joins the historic Wingohocking Creek at I Street and Ramona by the Juniata Golf Course. The creek flows into the Delaware River just south of the Betsy Ross Bridge.
History
Prior to the European settlement in the 1600s, the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed, like the rest of the area that is now Philadelphia, was inhabited by Native Americans of the Lenape tribe. Swedes and Finns traveling up the Delaware River were the first European inhabitants of the Tacony Creek Valley, while Germans fleeing religious persecution settled in the western portion of the watershed in what is now Germantown. In 1664, the land that is now southeastern Pennsylvania was surrendered to the English by the Dutch. In 1681, King Charles II of England granted William Penn 40,000 acres of land in the Delaware Valley as repayment for a debt owed to Penn’s father. The entire Toookany/Tacony-Frankford watershed lies within the area of this land grant. With the establishment of Penn’s colony, English settlers flocked to the region, establishing homesteads, plantations and towns.
The Tacony Creek and surrounding valley was primarily developed as an area of agriculture and milling operations, and became a center for industrial operations during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Expansion of the city in the late 1800s converted farmland into residential neighborhoods, though active agriculture persisted in the upper watershed until the early 1900s. High density housing characterizes the development of the area after the 1940s.
The Watershed Today
Currently, the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Creek experiences all of the usual urban ills including litter and illegal dumping, channelization of portions of the stream, steeply eroded streambanks, degraded aquatic and riparian habitat, and impaired water quality. Its watershed is home to approximately 357,000 people with a range of income levels and ethnicities, and a variety of community strengths and struggles. Ideally, the creek should serve as a meeting place, a place for relaxation, recreation, inspiration, and community connection. Currently, however, in many places, the compromised state of the creek’s health and aesthetics deters residents from enjoying it as a community asset. These areas are abandoned and rife with illegal activities such as all-terrain vehicle use, graffiti, dumping, and other unlawful behavior. The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership is working to eliminate these activities while restoring the watershed to a healthier, more vibrant and accessible state.
In areas both near and far from the creek, our watershed faces some major challenges. These include:
Stormwater Runoff
Stormwater runoff is a major source of water pollution. Dirt, chemicals and other pollutants on buildings and roads are washed off during storms into storm drains that lead to our local streams and rivers. During rain, polluted water from our streets is flooding our creeks, eroding stream banks, washing away natural stream habitats and fouling stream ecosystems. In many places, rainwater also overloads sanitary sewer pipes, causing them to discharge raw sewage into our streams.
Invasive Plants
Invasive plants have a devastating effect on local streams. Shallow-rooted invasives (Japanese Knotweed, Garlic Mustard, Lesser Celandine) invade creekside areas, crowding out long-rooted native plants and contributing to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity and stream habitat degradation. Without the long roots of native plants to stabilize the soil along the edges of the creeks, stream banks erode at an alarming rate. Soil from erosion kills the insect larvae that feed our native fish. Erosion widens streams and undercuts trees that provide crucial shade. This ultimately creates a wider, shallower, warmer creek that cannot sustain the native fish and aquatic life that thrive in deeper, cooler waters.
Negligence and Misuse
Most people don’t realize that storm drains on the streets lead directly to our creeks. Chip bags, candy wrappers, gum and cigarette butts discarded on the sidewalks or out of car windows ultimately make their way from the street through the storm drain system and into the creek. In addition, motor oil, antifreeze and windshield wiper fluid from cars, and salt and sand from road treatments make the same journey and eventually wind up damaging our waterways. In addition, urban green spaces are sometimes used for illegal activities, such as illegal dumping. This is not only unhealthy for the natural stream habitat, but it makes the parks unattractive and unhealthy for people who want to enjoy the city’s natural areas. Reckless ATV use destroys native plants and erodes stream banks, and graffiti damages trees and can contribute to an unsafe feeling for other park users.
Wasteful Water Usage
When we flush excess tap water down our drains, we are wasting a precious resource. Our tax dollars and a lot of energy go into making that water potable, and additional money and resources go into cleaning it again after it has been flushed into the sanitary sewer system. Most of our sewer pipes are over 100 years old and are no longer water-tight. Although municipalities are working to repair them, sanitary sewer line repair is a big, slow, expensive and disruptive job. Extra water entering the pipes causes more wear and tear, more overflows, and more problems.
To find out more ways you can help, check out our What You Can Do page.
