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
Green Life Blue Water 
Such important and exciting work, Pam. I wish every city council could see the videos to get a sense of the fundamental issues that need attention. although the details would shift based on geography and a number of other factors. The message about the centrality of community engagement is so necessary for city and town officials to consider but it’s not even on the radar for cities like the one where I live where the top-down governing paradigm focus is primarily on increasing the size of their tax base.
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It’s so true, Carol. The township I live in has doubled in population since we moved here 20 years ago which means more impermeable surfaces and more flooding, but no one cares as long as the tax money comes in. Sad, really.
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The videos are informative, and interesting
Toronto has similar issues, although not to the extent of Germantown or Philly
Settling wetlands and running pipes instead of natural water channels is an issue. 100 year old pipes…yes, a problem.!
You write great articles. I need to come around more!
Thank you, Pam!
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Thanks 🙏 Resa! Lease do.😘
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There is precious information, dear Pam. Great post! Thank you for such valuable tips. 🤙🙏
PS: I didn’t know a Germantown existed in Philadelphia!!😁😉
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Yes, we had many German immigrants at one time, Aladin.
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The discharge of sewage into rivers and seas here in UK is currently a huge problem. The water companies have been syphoning profits off to their shareholders for years, and now the infrastructure all needs replacing. So, guess what? They want us to cough up yet more money. It’s a real scandal.
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Ah, that’s terrible, Mick. It’s hard enough to keep that kind of infrastructure running smoothly when you take care of it. I can imagine some of the problems.
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It’s a real frustration, to say the least.
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Flooding has become a serious risk in Los Angeles Country during these epic rainfalls we’ve been having recently. I thank the gods that our neighborhood has, so far, been spared from the worst.
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I recently rewatched Chinatown, Rose. You can thank LA’s founding fathers for piping the Los Angeles River for all you current day flooding woes, but since they’re probably all dead they will never see the havoc they caused. 😔
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I didn’t know that about your state being so flood prone Pam. I agree with the speaker in the first video – why wouldn’t you be prepared for the worst and be happy on those occasions that flooding doesn’t happen? The flooded expressway photo you showed us was similar to a flash flood we had in the Detroit area on a major freeway a few years ago. There were news videos of vehicles bobbing around this local freeway where people were evacuated from their vehicle’s roof by rescuers in boats. It took days for the water to recede so that those abandoned vehicles could be towed away. We have a pounding rain as I type this comment, but I feel lucky we are escaping the violent storms which are just south of Michigan this evening.
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The storms are getting worse and the land’s ability to absorb flood waters is also getting worse because of all the concrete and macadam, Linda. Yet we keep installing impermeable surfaces everywhere. It’s not very forward thinking. 🤔
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No, it isn’t Pam. We had flooding in the other end of my city earlier this year – flooding in Winter is something of itself and it was heavy rains. It came fast and furiously up the drain into people’s basements, almost six inches I think I read. No flooding in the streets however which made those homeowners very angry.
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Wow, it’s quite unnerving, Linda.
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Hey there, Pam. Ida sure caused unreal flooding in the city. It was unbelievable, what with the Vine Street Expressway having been turned into a giant swimming pool. And parts of the Manayunk section were submerged. An incredible mess and dangerous situation.
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Still seems surreal, doesn’t it, Neil? Bit it’s been raining here in Lancaster for days – finally let up today – and I saw some flooded front lawns today when I walked the dog. Crazy. 🤪
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