In approximately 1811-1812, Philadelphia laid its first collection system pipes and they were made of wood! As the City grew, the Philadelphia Water Department must have realized that wood wasn’t going to cut it, i.e., it wouldn’t be too long-lasting, and so it began the installation of cast iron pipes. Two centuries later, it’s unclear how many of these 200-year-old cast iron pipes remain beneath the City of Brotherly Love — Philadelphia replaces worn out collection system pipes all the time to reduce incidences of inflow and infiltration or I/I — but what is clear is that Philadelphia’s combined sewer system plus climate changes makes for a scary and sometimes dangerous rain experience for many Philadelphians.

When it rains, stormwater joins wastewater in those same cast iron pipes before heading over to the wastewater treatment plant. Problematically, when the rain is heavy or it’s been raining for a long period of time, the collection system becomes overwhelmed so the City opens the valves, bypassing the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), and sends the water directly into the Schuylkill River untreated. On a normal day, the bacteria assists in cleaning up the wastewater, among other treatment techniques employed at the WWTP, and the remaining effluent is discharged to the river. When the city experiences a combined sewer overflow, or CSO event, the city bypasses the WWTP so as not to drown the bacteria the plant relies upon to break down the waste.

Philly underwater in September 2022 from Hurricane Ida

When Hurricane Ida flooded Center City Philadelphia in 2022, the City was unable to do much until the floodwaters receded given that the electrical pumps were about 18 feet below the Vine Street Expressway. Philadelphia has always had a flooding issue. Like most port cities, a lot of the area, especially between the Delaware and Schuykill Rivers was once wetlands. During the 19th century, Philadelphia made use of this network of streams by piping them to create an early wastewater treatment collection system thereby removing the waste stream that led to unsanitary conditions causing diseases such as typhoid. Today, that 200-year-old decision comes back to haunt Philly residents, especially those whose homes lie in floodplains where water used to go before streams became pipes.

Over the last 15 years or so, I’ve reviewed many dozens of environmental justice grants for EPA’s Grant Funding for Environmental Justice, assigning a ranking score to each one so it could be compared to all the grant applications received, and awarding grants to those with the highest scores. In 2022, I took on the role of Project Officer for a small grant that had been awarded to GreenTreks, a video production company that did a lot of water work with various partners including the City of Philadelphia Water Department. Philadelphia is currently in the middle of a 25-year program to install green infrastructure in its most vulnerable areas, thereby hoping to reduce flooding caused by the City’s CSOs in those areas.

Greentreks is a “non-profit multimedia & educational organization highlighting environmental solutions that inspire community action.” GreenTreks received an EJSG or Environmental Justice Small Grant of $75,000 under EPA’s program which was designed to find solutions to environmental problems in environmental justice or EJ areas in furtherance of EPA’s goal of protection of human health and the environment.

The GreenTreks grant focused on flooding in the Germantown area of Philadelphia which experiences high incidences of flash flooding sometimes even during minor rainstorms, and what residents could do to protect themselves from the worst of it.

The videos have been disseminated in the Germantown community but are really relevant for any place experiencing high incidences of flooding which, when paired with climate change, could be all of us at one time or other.

Directed by Maria Erades, these videos are informative, inspirational, and quite beautiful. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to enjoy them and gather some important tips on avoiding catastrophe in challenging storm-related times.

Photo by Arianna Rich

Then instead of rueing a rainy day, we can all get back to admiring nature through a watery lens.

Pam Lazos – 4.2.24

Originally Published on https://greenlifebluewater.earth/feed/

Pam Lazos

Pam Lazos is an environmental lawyer and the author of the enviro thriller, "Oil and Water," about oil spills and green technology; of a collection of novellas, "Six Sisters," about family, dysfunction, and the ties that bind us; creator of the literary and eco blog www.greenlifebluewater.earth; a blogger for the Global Water Alliance (GWA) in Philadelphia; on the Editorial Board for the wH2O Journal, recently rebranded as the International Journal of Water Equity and Justice (University of Pennsylvania); an editor and ghostwriter for the newly published book, "Finally Home" by Deacon Mike Oles; author of a children's book, "Into the Land of the Loud"; and former Senior Assistant Regional Counsel for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she protected water and wetlands for over 33 years. Pam continues this work through her writing. She practices laughter daily.