Photo: Schuylkill Action Network

In May, the Schuylkill Action Network held its 2011 Drinking Water Scholastic Awards at the Upper Perkiomen School District Education Center. Students (not pictured above, although those are actual children and that is the Schuylkill in the background) presented the various ways in which they're doing their part to keep the Schuylkill River free of pollutants and helping to protect a precious source of drinking water; projects ranged from construction of rain gardens and riparian buffers to water testing and educational videos.

Watch the new three-minute video of the event here.

Each week, we profile a BMP—short for Best Management Practices—to demonstrate how local businesses, organizations and neighbors are helping to keep our streams and rivers clean by managing stormwater on their property.

Image: Andropogon Associates, Inc.

The plaza outside Thomas Jefferson University's Dorrance H. Hamilton Building (located between 10th and 11th; Locust and Walnut streets) is an example of green stormwater infrastructure that's barely visible to the naked eye. The system constructed here collects water from the building's roof and air conditioner condensation and stores it in a cistern underneath the plaza. Just one inch of stormwater is enough to water the 1.6-acre plaza's plants and trees for a week. Click on the image above for a larger version.

Learn more about this stormwater BMP project, find it on a map and view photos at  the Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative project page.

Sometimes we talk about water cleanliness and river health in abstract-sounding ways: in terms of pollutants, sediment and dissolved oxygen levels. But the Philadelphia Water Department also takes the obvious route to cleaner waterways. Behold the view from our pontoon boat, which patrols the Schuylkill River from the Strawberry Mansion Bridge to Boathouse Row once a week from May to October (weather permitting), collecting "floatables": trash skimmed from the river. The most common floatables are plastic bags, styrofoam and plastic bottles (which are separated on the boat for recycling), but according to PWD's Jim D'Agostino, there's also the occasional car tire, household door, children's toy, bicycle and even a lawnmower. The photo above is from yesterday's outing; another shot of the pontoon boat after the jump.