Philadelphia Water joined other City partners and Philadelphia Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin in breaking ground on a Smith Recreation Center makeover that includes extensive green stormwater infrastructure. Click the image above to see more photos from the event.

You might think it’d be hard for green stormwater infrastructure to get much attention when you have a star NFL player (Connor Barwin) talking about fun things like a completely renovated recreation center and the new athletic fields and basketball courts coming to Smith Playground in South Philadelphia.

But our Green City, Clean Waters program got a genuine round of applause (and even a few cheers) at a December 28 ceremonial groundbreaking event when we announced that green stormwater tools—planned as part of a full-scale Smith makeover—will be keeping as much as 160,000 gallons of polluted water out of the Schuylkill River during storms.

It was a heart-warming moment for those in the crowd focused on water quality, but the biggest round of applause surely came during the standing ovation that followed Mayor Nutter, who told the crowd the groundbreaking would be his last before handing the reins to Mayor-Elect Jim Kenney.

For more on the projects planned for Smith, click here.