{"id":104,"date":"2019-06-07T20:46:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-08T00:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T12:48:38","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T17:48:38","slug":"summer-cleanups-cobbs-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Keep On Cleanin&#8217;&#8230;Cleanup Results, and More Work to Do"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"big\">Back in April, we joined communities all over the Darby-Cobbs Watershed for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dcva.org\/page-18194\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Darby Creek Valley Association<\/a>\u2019s (DCVA) annual watershed-wide cleanup\u2014an event that\u2019s continuously brought creek lovers together as volunteers for 35 years.<\/p>\n<p>From small, wooded Darby Creek tributaries in Delco to the lush, green Cobbs Creek floodplain beside the Historic Blue Bell Inn on Philly\u2019s Woodland Avenue, teams of people of all ages gathered at nearly<em> 50<\/em> sites early in the morning and worked throughout the unseasonably steamy day:<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed center\"><a title=\"Cobbs Creek Cleanup: 35 Years and Counting!\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/philadelphiawater\/albums\/72157708978797397\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/48021151787_122f8711c4_c.jpg\" alt=\"Cobbs Creek Cleanup: 35 Years and Counting!\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>And the final totals measuring what that work accomplished are in: <strong>55.87 tons of trash, litter, and debris, including 531 tires, removed from the watershed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"side-info half right accentblue-bg\" style=\"margin-top: .5em;\">\n<h4>Two Cleanups Next Week<\/h4>\n<p class=\"darkgray\"><strong>The Philadelphia Resilience Project<\/strong>, led by the City of Philadelphia, needs volunteers for its seventh Kensington cleanup on <strong>June 15<\/strong>. <a class=\"semibold darkblue\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.everyaction.com\/6vFcv9TrRk-vebbcju1Dpg2?mc_cid=f199407d12&#038;mc_eid=f6c2da1333\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Please RSVP if you can make it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"darkgray\">On <strong>Wednesday, June 12<\/strong> you can join us\u00a0+\u00a0the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=127448050667732&#038;ref=br_rs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Partnership for the Delaware Estuary<\/a> for a <a class=\"semibold darkblue\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/416139152304105\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cleanup on the Delaware River in South Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>At the Philadelphia Water Department\u2019s designated cleanup site, dozens of volunteers and staff from PWD, the Darby Borough and the DCVA attacked both sides of Cobbs Creek, including areas along the Woodland Ave. bridge where short-dumping or illegal dumping has added to neighborhood litter for a challenging situation. (Read about renewed\u00a0efforts\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philly-says-hidden-cameras-higher-fines-help-catch-more-illegal-dumpers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">to bust more\u00a0dumpers<\/a> that the City and Philly Police <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PhiladelphiaGov\/status\/1136294143016218624\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced last week<\/a>!)<\/p>\n<p>Significant progress was made during the cleanup, but that\u2019s not the end of it: additional plans are being developed<em> right now<\/em> to continue to remove the layers of embedded debris along Cobbs Creek\u2019s streambanks. <a href=\"https:\/\/phillyh2o.info\/signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stay tuned.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&rsquo;s a tough truth to swallow, but decades of litter and other issues have degraded urban waterways in significant ways, and our restoration work across the city is, in reality, a\u00a0never-ending process <strong>that counts on volunteers<\/strong> and<strong> dedicated community stewardship.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Speaking of restoration&#8230;<\/strong> as has been the case at any number of recent large-scale watershed cleanups, our <strong>Waterways Restoration Team<\/strong> provided invaluable assistance and deployed heavy equipment (along with lots of muscle) to remove large items, debris, and the hundreds of tires. Most of those tires will end up being recycled thanks to a partnership with Bridgestone Tires.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thanks Waterways Restoration!<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"embed center\" style=\"margin-top: 1em;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FPhillyH2O%2Fposts%2F3364199266939652&#038;width=500\" width=\"500\" height=\"455\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bhjgb9thgMC\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maria Horowitz<\/a>, a PWD Environmental Engineer who worked with DCVA and other community groups to recruit volunteers and brought in the Waterways Restoration crews, says that while the cleanup is a uniquely massive annual event, it has something in common with the many other volunteer efforts she leads throughout the year.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThese events bring people from different parts of our region together in a special way,\u201d <strong>says Horowitz, who grew up in Chester County and now calls South Philly home.<\/strong> \u201cMost of the rivers and creeks in Philly\u2019s seven watersheds only have a small percentage of their total miles within the city, so that shared sense of caring for our water is an important part of these volunteer events. People from the suburbs get to see that Philly cares about these waterways, and vice versa.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Volunteers also recently gathered at Bartram\u2019s Garden in Southwest Philly, and additional trash-busting events are planned for this summer and fall.<\/p>\n<h4>Want to get involved?<\/h4>\n<h5>Sign up for our <a href=\"https:\/\/phillyh2o.info\/signup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">event updates here<\/a> or <span class=\"inline-block\">text <strong class=\"black\">Events<\/strong> to <strong class=\"black\">1-877-454-2862<\/strong>.<\/span><\/h5>\n<h5><a class=\"btn btn-lg btn-primary white bold\" style=\"white-space: inherit;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pg\/PhillyH2O\/events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">See Summer Cleanups on Our Facebook Page<\/a><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Volunteers removed 55.87 tons of trash, litter, and debris, including 531 tires, from the watershed in a single day. Find out where you can help this summer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"custom_css":"","custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18,27,28,35,53,105],"class_list":["post-104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","tag-cobbs-creek","tag-delaware-county","tag-delaware-river","tag-event","tag-kid-friendly","tag-volunteer","wpautop"],"acf":{"suggested":null},"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/phila.gov\/blog\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Keep On Cleanin&#8217;&#8230;Cleanup Results, and More Work to Do","url":"http:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":""},"articleSection":"Community","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Hopf"}],"creator":["Amy Hopf"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"@PhillyH2O Blog","logo":""},"keywords":["cobbs creek","delaware county","delaware river","event","kid friendly","volunteer"],"dateCreated":"2019-06-08T00:46:00Z","datePublished":"2019-06-08T00:46:00Z","dateModified":"2025-02-24T17:48:38Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Keep On Cleanin&#8217;&#8230;Cleanup Results, and More Work to Do\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/water.phila.gov\\\/blog\\\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/water.phila.gov\\\/blog\\\/summer-cleanups-cobbs-results\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"\"},\"articleSection\":\"Community\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Amy Hopf\"}],\"creator\":[\"Amy Hopf\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"@PhillyH2O Blog\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[\"cobbs creek\",\"delaware county\",\"delaware river\",\"event\",\"kid friendly\",\"volunteer\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2019-06-08T00:46:00Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-08T00:46:00Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-02-24T17:48:38Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/phila.gov\/p.js"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2855,"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104\/revisions\/2855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}