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The archive will be available at http://archive.phillywatersheds.org for approximately one year (through September 2020). If you use or are responsible for content here that is not yet available elsewhere, please contact the PWD Digital Team.

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Show a little love to Water this Valentine’s Day

candy heart
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and love is in the air… trying its best not to freeze instantly!

One of our Fairmount Water Works educators passed along a love note to water written by a student as part of their educational programs. If only we could all love water as much as Elliot, whose letter below rivals the love poetry of Horace and Catullus:
 
Phew… that kind of passion can really warm somebody up on a day like today!

It’s too bad that Valentine’s Day falls right during the coldest time of the year because what could be more romantic than stroll along the waterfront? And while a walk on the Schuylkill Banks or Forbidden Drive or Penn’s Landing might not be in the cards for tomorrow night (save the brave, hearty souls), you certainly will have plenty of opportunities when the weather warms up to take the object of your affection for a rom-com-worthy evening of dinner and a river walk under the moonlight.

In the meantime, show some Valentine’s Day love to our rivers by following the tips we have on our website for caring for our watersheds. Most relevant for this time of year are our tips for environmentally safe winter ice removal. Salt used on the sidewalks and streets eventually runs off into our storm sewers and makes its way to the Delaware and Schuylkill, our drinking water sources and home to freshwater plants and animals that don’t deal well with the salt. Taking steps to minimize the amount of salt used by shoveling first and substituting other de-icing products in place of salt can help reduce the amount that ends up in our rivers.

Follow these links for more tips on how residents, businesses, schools, and community groups can take care of our rivers and streams!

And if you want to send us a love note of your own, please do!

Love, 
The Philadelphia Water Department 

Endangered Shortnose Sturgeon Returns to the Schuylkill


Shortnose sturgeon
Shortnosed sturgeon, Acipenser brevirostrum. Author: Karen Couch, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Last summer, just below the Fairmount Dam on the Schuylkill River, an angler managed to catch a shortnose sturgeon, a species of fish that has been on the endangered species list since 1967! While sometimes found in the Delaware River, the shortnose sturgeon has never been found in the Schuylkill—at least not on record. PWD regularly samples fish in the Schuylkill and in their 14 years of sampling below the dam, they have not seen this species.

Spotting this shortnosed sturgeon not only indicates that the species could be coming back, it also indicates that the water quality of the Schuylkill is improving. Researchers have long used levels of dissolved oxygen to gauge water quality—oxygen deficient water is not good for aquatic life. The sturgeon is extremely sensitive to low levels of dissolved oxygen, so finding one in the Schuylkill indicates that the dissolved oxygen levels are on the rise.

If you’re lucky enough to catch a sturgeon, remember it is a protected species and that you should quickly return it to the water. To learn more about the shortnosed sturgeon and other species (not all good!) that inhabit the Schuylkill River, check out this article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Two Rivers One Water



It’s summer time! What could be better than spending your summer outside in warm weather, then cooling off with a refreshing glass of cold water? Philadelphia’s water has not always been as clean as it is today. In fact, Philadelphia currently enjoys watersheds that are cleaner than they have been in over a century. To ensure our water remains healthy, PWD works behind the scenes to produce about 250 million gallons of high quality drinking water every day.


PWD is excited to start our Two Rivers One Water campaign to keep people in the know about their connection to our water. Take a look at this poster to see how you can lend a hand this summer to make sure our water stays pure. A few ways to help include bagging your dog’s waste, limiting chemical usage, and keeping your storm drains clear.

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