{"id":846,"date":"2021-09-28T16:34:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T20:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/2021-source-water-protection-week\/"},"modified":"2022-12-03T11:25:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T16:25:21","slug":"2021-source-water-protection-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/2021-source-water-protection-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Source Water Protection Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 26 through October\u00a02 marks the first #SourceWaterProtectionWeek<\/a> \u2014 a new campaign spearheaded by the American Water Works Association, a nonprofit that brings together water providers like the Philadelphia Water Department to take on pressing issues that impact our most precious natural resource.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Philadelphia has a long history when it comes to the practice of protecting the sources of our drinking water.<\/strong> The most famous example? Fairmount Park\u2019s origins as a means of preserving forests around the Wissahickon Creek and Schuylkill River to protect water quality.<\/p>\n

With our Green City, Clean Waters<\/em><\/a> program now in its 10th year, Philadelphia boasts thousands of green infrastructure systems soaking up stormwater to reduce sewer overflows and has again returned to working with nature to reduce human impacts on our watershed.<\/p>\n

However, with only a small percentage of the area that drains into the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers \u2014 the source of our drinking water and approximately 13 million other people in three states<\/strong> \u2014 under Philadelphia\u2019s jurisdiction, our efforts to protect our water have evolved well beyond limiting what we put in our waterways.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhen people think of source water protection, they think of all the different policies, programs, and infrastructure in place to protect our drinking water supply at the source,\u201d says Kelly Anderson<\/strong>, manager of the Philadelphia Water Department Watershed Protection Program<\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s also more to our Watershed Protection Program<\/a> when you take into account things like data collection and analysis and computer models looking at the flow of water,” Anderson notes.<\/cite>\u00a0“It is all ultimately tied to a source water protection approach, which recognizes the connections between the health of aquatic life, the health of our rivers, and the quality of our drinking water.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Working with Upstream Partners to Improve Water Quality<\/h3>\n

On one hand, the Philadelphia Water Department invests in physical barriers that help reduce pollutants in our waters, both locally and throughout the Delaware River watershed through organizations like the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since\u00a02006, the Schuylkill River Restoration Fund\u00a0collected more than $4.6 million<\/strong> from donors including the Philadelphia Water Department and leveraged another $5 million\u00a0for more than 121 projects that protect and restore the Schuylkill River.<\/p>\n

Recently, the fund\u00a0held an event at the City\u2019s Northwestern Stables<\/a> site to highlight improvements<\/a> funded in part by the Water Department and leveraged by additional investment from the federal government. The event also introduced seven new projects being funded in 2021<\/a> that will improve water quality throughout the Schuylkill watershed.<\/p>\n