A rain garden installed by Rain Check contractors. We're looking for qualified contractors to install these stormwater tools. Credit: Philadelphia Water

Philadelphia Water, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and Sustainable Business Network are looking for qualified contractors to work with the Rain Check program. Through Rain Check, Philadelphia Water provides free rain barrels  and helps residents pay for landscaping tools that manage stormwater and can beautify their properties.

We need qualified contractors to install stormwater tools such as rain gardens, permeable pavers, downspout planters and rain barrels.
Installation contractors may be landscapers, hardscapers, general home contractors, and professionals from related fields.

Benefits include: free or reduced-cost training, affiliation with our innovative Green City, Clean Waters program, paid consultations, and new customer leads without the cost of advertising. Rain Check work is not intended to be full time, and pairs well with an existing workload.

Depending on participant demand, active contractors can expect to earn $10,000-$35,000 per year. Work will begin in July for qualified contractors.
To be considered for Rain Check, any interested contractors should join us for an upcoming information session to learn more about the program and meet current contractors.

Date: February 12, 2016

Time:

• Info Session: 8 – 8:45 a.m.
• Contractor Meeting: 9-11 a.m.

Meeting Location:
PHS Board Room
100 N 20th Street- 5th Floor

RSVP by February 10th at archive.phillywatersheds.org/raincheck

More Detailed Information on the Positions:

Rain Garden and Permeable Paver Position Description

Rain Barrel and Downspout Planter Position Description

The beautiful Tacony Creek in winter. Smart use of deicing products can help minimize impacts on our watersheds. Credit: TTF Watershed Partnership.

If you're the kind of person who thinks about the health of our urban watersheds, you've probably wondered if using too much salt on driveways and sidewalks can hurt Philly's rivers and creeks.

As snow piles up in the winter, we often turn to salt or other solutions to melt snow and ice as an important public safety measure that saves lives on our roadways every year.

Still, it's important to know that all deicers can be harmful to our drinking water supply and the environment when overused, so the best strategy is to read the labels and use as directed only when needed. High concentrations of salt can damage and kill vegetation and harm freshwater ecosystems and fish. Excess salt can also seep into the ground and destroy soil structure, which can lead to erosion and further pollute waterways.

Use these winter deicing tips to help protect our watersheds:

Dozens of bags of “floatable” trash pulled from the Delaware River during a 2015 volunteer cleanup. MLK Day of Service volunteers who participate in neighborhood trash removal will also be helping our rivers because cleaner streets = cleaner creeks and rivers. Credit: Philadelphia Water.

As far as resumes go, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s is pretty hard to top.

A 200,000-person march on Washington that was crucial in helping to pass the Civil Rights Act? Check.

A year-long bus boycott that eventually led to a Supreme Court ruling declaring segregated buses unconstitutional? Check.

The list of Dr. King’s accomplishments is long, but one thing you don’t hear too much about is King the environmentalist. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t connections between his activism and the green movement that helped to bring us transformational legislation like the Clean Water Act.

Despite the fact his 1968 assassination predated the first Earth Day by two years, many credit MLK’s work as laying the foundation for the environmental justice movement—a movement guided by the belief that all people, no matter their race or income level, have an equal right to things like safe, clean drinking water and health-promoting green space.

No matter how you think of Dr. King’s legacy, the fact is, much of the work that will be done in his honor during the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service—an event being touted as the biggest MLK Day volunteer effort in the nation—will help our rivers.

How?