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Delaware

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Tomorrow: Soak It Up, South Philly!

Join us tomorrow, Thursday March 8 at 4:30 p.m. at 16th and Jackson streets in South Philly for our second Soak It Up, Philly! event. The Philadelphia Water Department is celebrating its green stormwater infrastructure projects that absorb rain water and allow it to infiltrate into the ground instead of burdening our sewer system and polluting our rivers and streams. There will be free refreshments, art activities for all ages, flower bulb plantings and more. This event is rain or shine. Will it be almost 70 degrees tomorrow? Probably! Will there be a giant pair of scissors? We think so!

Thank You For Soaking (It Up)

Yesterday's inaugural Soak It Up, Philly! event took place in New Kensington, where the Philadelphia Water Department showed off the Green Streets that are helping to improve the health of Philly's rivers and streams. Residents of all ages joined city officials and PWD staff to tour the green infrastructure at and around the Shissler Recreation Center that infiltrates stormwater runoff. There were snacks! There was a pair of giant scissors! Photo highlights below—the next Soak It Up, Philly! event is on March 8 at 16th and Jackson streets in South Philly.


From left: Parks and Recreation commissioner Michael DiBerardinis, PWD commissioner Howard Neukrug, New Kensington CDC's Sandy Salzman and MOTU's Andrew Stober kick off the celebration.


PWD-sponsored yarnbombing of a stormwater tree trench tree


The artists from ishknits responsible for said yarnbombing


Kids planted daffodils around the trees and were shown a model that demonstrates how a stormwater planter absorbs runoff.


Green projects were decorated with chalk drawings of Indian, Japanese and Egyptian water symbols.

Tomorrow: Soak It Up, Kensington

Join us tomorrow, Thursday March 1 in front of the Shissler Recreation Center at 4:30 for the premiere Soak It Up, Philly! event. Soak It Up Thursdays—happening throughout the city during March and April—are celebrations of the Philadelphia Water Department's efforts to reduce pollution entering our creeks and rivers by greening our city and beautifying our neighborhoods. It's all part of the 25-year Green City, Clean Waters plan to install green infrastructure that absorbs stormwater runoff. Come on out for free refreshments and a tour of the Big Green Block, a project that includes improvements and green infrastructure installation at the Shissler Rec Center and surrounding streets (Blair Street is pictured above). After the jump, some Soak It Up, Philly! facts:

Spokesdog Contest Countdown: Two Days Left to Enter Your Dog!

Queen Village and Northern Liberties dog owners: Don't forget to register your dog for the Philly Water's Best Friend competition! Registration ends tomorrow. Don't "fur"get. Take a "paws" from your busy day and do it now. Don't make us "unleash" more dog puns.

This Place Is BMPing: Liberty Lands

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.

After the EPA remediated the site of a former tannery in Northern Liberties in the late 1980s, the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association turned the former brownfield into a park. Liberty Lands, as it is now known, completed its remarkable turnaround with the construction of a stormwater management project. A rain garden detention pond collects runoff from the site and an adjacent street, filtering it through a stone bed and delivering it to a series of three in-ground cisterns. An irrigation system pumps water from the cisterns to irrigate trees and grass at the park. Maintaining the grass cover at the sloped site helps reduce erosion problems.

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

News Stream: Spokesdog Deadline Approaching

While the field of spokesdog contestants gets bigger and more competitive every day (some recent entries are pictured above), the deadline for registering your dog in the Philly Water's Best Friend competition in Queen Village and Northern Liberties is nipping at our heels. Register your dog by February 15 to participate in the chance to win prizes and educate Philly dogs about the importance of picking up pet waste in order to keep our rivers and streams clean.

As this Newsworks article notes, Philly voted in its Schuylkill River spokesdogs last year—now it's the Delaware's turn to elect its ambassadogs.

Dog Days: Countdown to the Philly Water's Best Friend Competition

Queen Village and Northern Liberties dog owners: Only 26 days left to register your pooch for the Philly Water's Best Friend competition! The dogs pictured above are only some of the entries in the contest to be the Philadelphia Water Department's spokesdog, an honor that comes with perks, prizes and the responsibility of teaching others to clean up pet waste and keep our rivers and streams clean. Registration ends February 15—don't miss your chance to enter your dog, have an online profile made and participate in the online voting process (which starts March 1) and awards ceremony in your neighborhood.

Visit our spokesdog page to learn more about the competition and register your dog (come on, Queen Village—NoLibs is way ahead of you).

11 For 2011: PWD's Solar Array

posted in

PWD's Watersheds blog closes out the year with a list of 11 green missions accomplished in 2011, from innovative stormwater management projects and stream restorations to groundbreaking policy agreements and energy-generating solar arrays.

In April, the City of Philadelphia unveiled its first solar photovoltaic system (above), located at PWD's Southeast Water Pollution Control Plant. The 250-kilowatt solar array consists of more than 1,000 panels covering 60,000 square feet, and its electricity will help power the energy-intensive task of water treatment. In October, the Mayor's Office of Sustainability reported that the solar array had already generated enough electricity to power 2.7 houses for a year.

11 For 2011: Percy Street Porous Paving

PWD's Watersheds blog closes out the year with a list of 11 green missions accomplished in 2011, from innovative stormwater management projects and stream restorations to groundbreaking policy agreements and energy-generating solar arrays.

In June, the city's first porous street debuted in South Philadelphia. The 800 block of Percy Street is just six feet wide, but the replacement of traditional impervious asphalt with a porous surface has already had a big impact: During Hurricane Irene, monitoring at Percy Street indicated that stormwater runoff infiltrated into the ground instead of flowing into the sewer system. Keeping stormwater out of Philadelphia's combined sewers reduces overflows of sewage and stormwater into our rivers and streams and protects our drinking-water supply.

11 For 2011: Eadom Street Depaving

posted in

PWD's Watersheds blog closes out the year with a list of 11 green missions accomplished in 2011, from innovative stormwater management projects and stream restorations to groundbreaking policy agreements and energy-generating solar arrays.

Philadelphia's first depaving project got underway this year at Eadom and Bridge Streets—located just west of I-95 in Frankford. PWD's Waterways Restoration Team coordinated with neighborhood volunteers to depave a portion of the parking lot and install and plant the first of six rain gardens planned for the site in April. In November, 18 volunteers from PWD planted three additional rain gardens. Once completed, the Eadom Street Project will convert 10,000 square feet of impervious
concrete to rain gardens that allow stormwater to infiltrate the soil instead of flowing into our sewers. Not only do green infrastructure projects such as rain gardens help protect our waterways and beautify the neighborhood, they also reduce stormwater bills for property owners. In all, the Eadom Street project will manage stormwater runoff from two acres.

Click here to download a rendering of the finished parking lot. (875 KB PDF)

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