With the Philadelphia Water Department proposing a rate change for 2013, we're running a series of informational posts to explain how water rates are set, the terminology behind the rate setting process, and the investments PWD is making in our city's infrastructure, health and environment.

OK, maybe not as exciting as that other Bond we’ve been watching since Dr. No came out in 1962, but this bond—along with several of its brothers and sisters—does just as much to keep us from suffering major disasters at the hands of diabolical enemies (in our case, rust, corrosion, wear, and damage).

Some time ago, the local papers asked opinion leaders in the region what they would recommend the city do with a billion dollars. At the Water Department, we know exactly what we would do. That money would go right into fixing and replacing some of the 6,000 miles of pipes and tunnels that carry stormwater off the streets, our wastewater (a nice way of saying what you flush out of your house) to our treatment plants and our drinking water back to our houses. It’s a system that has been around for decades and, frankly, is starting to show its age a little. The tough part is that a billion dollars wouldn’t even begin to cover everything we have to do and the last time we checked, no one was going around handing out billion-dollar checks. (Could you imagine the size of that novelty check?)

In case you missed it: A cover story in the South Philadelphia Review reported on the grant that will help fund green stormwater management at Nebinger Elementary School:

A revamped playground area, an outdoor classroom complete with gardens and a campus-style reading space, rain barrels, a tree infiltration system and the implementation of porous pavements are just some of the innovative green infrastructures planned for George W. Nebinger School, 601 Carpenter St., and its surrounding neighborhoods.

Nebinger, as well as other sections of Bella Vista and a Queen Village playground, received word April 26 that it was the recipient of a $200,000 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, with a matching amount from the Philadelphia Water Department and the nonprofit Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, which covers the ecosystem spanning from central New Jersey to southern Delaware.

Read the whole article here.

Photo: Rebecca Kennedy/Pennsylvania Environmental Council

The Philly Watersheds Blog is not in the habit of posting photos of baby animals for the sake of posting photos of baby animals (although it is Friday, and who among you would blame us?), and so we inform you that this red-bellied turtle hatchling was spotted earlier this week near the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge along the Delaware River. More specifically, the turtle was observed at Lardner's Point, a brand  new four-acre city park on the site of a former ferry terminal where a 2004 oil spill occurred. "More than just a pretty park on a pier," writes Sandy Bauers in an Inquirer article this week, "it is an ecological restoration that turned a concreted shoreline into a freshwater marsh, thick with plants and beneficial to wildlife."

As if to illustrate the point, this red-bellied turtle—a threatened species in Pennsylvania—showed up on the newly restored sandy beach. According to eyewitness accounts, the turtle had one eye, was feisty, and was last seen paddling back into the river. It's possible the turtle made his way across the river from the Palmyra Cove Nature Park in New Jersey, which has a red-bellied turtle population.

More photos below—happy Friday, everyone.