Tacony Creek Park Storage: Real–time Control
I Street and Ramona Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19124
Although Philadelphia’s water infrastructure system was once considered state-of-the-art, in many places sewer pipes and the treatment plants are not sized to handle the volumes that the growing population demands, and they frequently overflow into local creeks and rivers. During heavy rain, a combination of rainwater (from roofs and streets) and sewage (from homes and businesses) overflow into the Frankford Creek through a large pipe opening (or outfall) near I Street and Ramona Avenue.
The 25 ft diameter pipe rarely fills entirely and, if it had a mechanism for temporarily sealing its opening to the creek, has the capacity to hold back approximately 10 million gallons of mixed rainwater and sewage during rainstorms. The polluted water stored in the pipe during the storm could then be treated at the wastewater treatment plant after the storm passed.
The Philadelphia Water Department is working to install a “Pelican Gate,” a large barrier near the opening of the pipe that holds back the sewer water from overflowing into the creek. This would turn the already existing sewer pipe into a massive, temporary storage container. The Pelican Gate stores the water to be treated after the storm, but also contains a failsafe to allow an overflow to occur in order to prevent flooding.
Benefits:
- Combined with other system upgrades, the potential for an average reduction in sewage overflows of 600 million gallons/year
- A significant reduction of pollution to the Frankford Creek
