A rolling collection of stories, tips, and news powered by the people of the Philadelphia Water Department.
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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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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In response to rapidly growing interest from non-residential customers, Philadelphia Water is proud to present the Stormwater Retrofit Guidance Manual. The 186-page manual is designed for those customers poised to benefit the most from adding cost-saving green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) to their buildings and grounds. Bringing this customer base into Philadelphia’s green movement is a key par
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This May was an extremely dry one for Philadelphia, with the city recording just .59 inches of rain before a sizeable downpour last week. The rain that fell May 27 was by far the heaviest of the month, more than doubling the total.
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I came of drinking age during a time when now-extinct macrobrewers like Schmidt’s Brewery and Ortlieb Brewing in Northern Liberties ruled local taprooms. It was also a time when our tap water was derisively called “Chlorine Cocktail” or “Schuylkill Punch” (incidentally, now the name of a brew offered by Manayunk Brewing Co.).
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The real beauty of our Green City, Clean Waters program and the green infrastructure it makes use of is that we get to add new green spaces to neighborhoods in the form of rain gardens, bumpouts, tree trenches and more, all while bulking up our water infrastructure and protecting our rivers. With Green City, Clean Waters, neighborhoods are expanding their green space, and Philadelphia is drastical
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We couldn’t help but notice all the buzz down in Washington this week as they made the case for green to residents and unveiled revised stormwater plans relying heavily on green infrastructure. We congratulate DC Water on a big step in the right the right direction! Their debut also reminded us of our Green City, Clean Waters rollout way back in 2011, and got us thinking about the “why” behind gre
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It’d be a stretch to call Christopher Crockett the grandfather of source water protection in Philadelphia (that title goes to whoever had the bright idea to create Fairmount Park). However, he is the founder of Philadelphia Water’s Source Water Protection Program, a fact that makes him an especially interesting guest speaker for tonight’s Tapping Our Watershed event at National Mechanics in Old Ci
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The tragic Amtrak crash that claimed eight lives and left hundreds injured in Port Richmond last week was an inescapable topic for panelists speaking at the May 14 Value of Water Coalition forum at WHYY’s studios. Organized as a National Infrastructure Week event, What’s the Value of Water? The Pennsylvania Story featured five speakers, including Philadelphia Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug.
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While we were working with Mural Arts to install artist Eurhi Jones’ Waterways, a 10-block string of colorful steppingstones in Manayunk, our public engagement team took the time to do an informal survey of people passing through the neighborhood.
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