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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After years of bringing the benefits of green stormwater features to dozens of Philly schools through our Green City, Clean Waters plan, we’re ready to share what we’ve learned with communities here and around the country. The result? Transforming Philadelphia’s Schoolyards, a colorful, 44-page design guide to greening schoolyards made with the help of the Community Design Collaborative and their
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Our green infrastructure projects are nothing without coordinated partnerships and a healthy dose of organic community input to help them take shape and grow. Now, thanks to a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Knight Cities Challenge grant*, The Big SandBox, one of our green school program partners, will have the means ($149,000 of it!) to make that happen at four Philadelphia schools. The Bi
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Join Mayor Michael Nutter, US EPA Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin, Councilman Mark Squilla, School District of Philadelphia Superintendent, Dr. William R. Hite Jr., Partnership for the Delaware Estuary Executive Director Jennifer Adkins, Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug and Public Officials as we celebrate a national model for stormwater management and educational programming at George W.
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Back in October we announced that Green City, Clean Waters was awarded the American Planning Association (APA) Pennsylvania Chapter’s Planning Excellence Award in Implementation. We are now thrilled to announce that we won the APA 2015 National Planning Excellence Award for Implementation! This award recognizes a project that demonstrates positive changes as a result of planning efforts. The award
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Philadelphia Water Department is proud to be a founding member of The Value of Water Coalition, an alliance of public and private water agencies, business and community leaders, and national organizations united in communicating the importance of water to the economic, environmental, and social well-being of America.
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The Philadelphia Water Department isn’t just interested in managing stormwater at schools—we’re leveraging opportunities to create outdoor classrooms that connect students to their environment. Join us on Monday, March 30 from 3:30-4:30 p.m. for Green City, Clean Waters: A Case Study for Greening Schoolyards in Philadelphia, a webinar presented by Toronto-based urban environmental organization Eve
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If you’re intersted in learning about our watershed or rivers (or history for that matter!), we highly recommend attending a talk by our very own historian, Adam Levine, this coming Monday, March 16 at National Mechanics (22 S. 3rd Street) at 6PM. The talk, titled “From Creek to Sewer: History of Topographical Change in Philadelphia,” is part of the Tapping Our Watershed science cafe series and wi
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In a letter to the editor of The Economist (third one from the top), Councillor Harry Phibbs of London’s Hammersmith and Fulham Borough responds to their September article “London’s Sewers, Smelling Sweet” about the Thames Tideway Tunnel. He makes a point about using green, natural stormwater infrastructure solutions by referencing Philadelphia’s “better, cheaper alternative of green infrastructur
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