A rolling collection of stories, tips, and news powered by the people of the Philadelphia Water Department.

@Philly H2O Blog

RECENT POSTS:

Improvements to Address Northern Liberties Flooding

July 13, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

This area contains the historic Cohocksink Creek and is the focus of a long-term infrastructure improvement project. Traditional sewer expansion and green stormwater tools will improve the capacity of the local system while reducing the amount of water entering sewers.

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Starting Today: New Stormwater Regulations Bring Healthier Rivers

July 1, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

These updates represent the most substantial changes to the regulations in nearly a decade. They ensure new development works alongside Philadelphia Water’s Green City, Clean Waters plan by requiring new sites to handle more water, slow stormwater more effectively, and release cleaner water into our sewers.

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Wanted: A Few Good Spokesdogs for Healthy Water

June 30, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

For 2015, Fishtown and Washington Square West were selected as competing locales for the contest, which has been selecting a special pooch to spread the word about poo-lution since 2011. We’ll be accepting nominations for dogs from those neighborhoods through July 15. Guidelines and submission forms are available here. The Spokesdog program is held annually with the help of our friends at the Part

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Pew Center Gives $300K to Shine Light on Secret River Heroes

June 26, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

Celebrating their 10th year of grant making in Philadelphia, the Center announced its 2015 recipients on June 16. We at Philadelphia Water are thrilled to see the Water Works counted among our region’s exemplary artists and cultural institutions and look forward to the expanded environmental education efforts made possible through this grant.

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The Clean Water Rule: What Does It Mean for Philly?

June 23, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

The Clean Water Rule, officially adopted at the end of May and formalized by President Obama, clarifies what waterways fall under the protection of the federal Clean Water Act and came as result of an extensive public input process organized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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Stormwater Regulations Update: Learn About Some Important Changes

June 19, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

In order to make sure new development contributes to Philadelphia’s vision for a modern stormwater system that protects our rivers and creeks, we have a set of standards—collectively called Stormwater Regulations—that let developers know how their property should handle the water that comes from rainstorms and other wet weather events.

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Green Tools: Six Ways They Can Make a Climate Changed-Future a Little Less Scary

June 12, 2015  |  Brian Rademaekers

The EPA graphic focuses on urban areas and paints a grim picture of the future awaiting cities as the effects of climate change intensify in the coming decades. Considering the already staggering cost of flooding events stemming from super-storms like Hurricane Sandy, the projection of a 30 percent increase in annual flood costs is especially troubling.

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