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.

Saylors Grove before renovation

Saylors Grove after the creation of a stormwater wetland

Before the Philadelphia Water Department constructed a stormwater wetland at Saylors Grove in Fairmount Park, the area received an excessive amount of runoff that drained into Monoshone Creek, a tributary to the Wissahickon, resulting in erosion of the Monoshone and impaired water quality. The creation of a one-acre wetland in 2006 now handles approximately 25 million gallons of urban stormwater each year, slowing the flow to the Monoshone and filtering the stormwater naturally by removing pollutants as the water cascades over rocks en route to the wetland.

PWD continues to monitor this stormwater wetland to determine the reduction in stormwater flow to the creek and analyze its performance. It is estimated that the wetland intercepts 73% of the watershed's annual runoff.

Learn more about this stormwater BMP project, find it on a map and view photos at  the Temple-Villanova Sustainable Stormwater Initiative project page. After the jump, another photo of the fully vegetated wetland.

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.

Those who attended this week's Low Impact Development Symposium in Philadelphia had the opportunity to take a bus tour of the city's green infrastructure projects and see how PWD is managing stormwater in an urban setting. One of the sites on the tour is Herron Playground in Pennsport. The playground features a porous asphalt basketball court with a subsurface infiltration system that manages runoff. Surrounding the play area and spray park pictured above are new trees and, on the south side of the site, a rain garden also helps to infiltrate water into the ground.

Locate this and other PWD green infrastructure projects on our Big Green Map.

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.

Photo: PA DEP

It's not unexpected that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection would have a BMP or two at its regional headquarters—it's kind of like seeing a garage next to Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s house, or pink flamingos on John Waters' lawn. That's just what they do. But the stormwater management at PA DEP's office in Norristown (upstream from Philadelphia along the Schuylkill River) is a little bit unusual. Sure, part of the building features a fairly typical green roof (688 square feet, and accessible to employees on the second floor), but it also sports a 5,000-gallon cistern that resembles a tiki hut. The indoor cistern stores runoff from the impervious portion of the roof; the water is filtered and used to flush toilets and water indoor plants. When the cistern approaches its storage capacity during heavy rainfall, water is diverted from the tank.

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

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.

Multiple BMPs at Waterview Recreation Center in East Germantown make this site a study in the different approaches to urban stormwater management. The porous concrete sidewalk in front of the recreation center allows for infiltration of stormwater. Where porous concrete did not replace traditional impervious sidewalk, stormwater tree trenches planted with turf grass and street trees also help capture stormwater. The porous concrete/tree trench system is also connected to modified inlets, which convey runoff from the street into the infiltration beds. And finally, two flow-through planters (pictured above) collect stormwater from the main building's roof; water flows from the partially disconnected roof leader to a concrete splash block, then into the waterproofed planter boxes landscaped with native plants. Any overflow is directed back into the city's sewer system. PWD partnered with Meliora Environmental Design and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for the Waterview Recreation Center project, a demonstration of how green infrastructure can work even with limited space and funding.

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