Posts tagged drinking water
Another Philly First: 10,000 Square Foot Parking Lot Goes Green
Jun 29th
You might accuse us of being obsessed with stormwater, but after last Friday night’s downpour and the resulting mess on our roads and waterways, is it any wonder? Amazingly, the Philadelphia Insurance Triathlons were held on Saturday and Sunday and the swim in the Schuylkill went off without a hitch.
We’d venture to say that the river was swimmable only because the buffer provided by the Fairmount Park system kept some of the polluted runoff at bay. The Philadelphia Water Department’s ambitious Green City, Clean Waters program seeks to emulate nature’s slow it down, soak it in methods — most recently with a parking lot which replaces ten thousand feet of pavement with rain gardens to manage stormwater on site.
There’s a ribbon cutting celebration planned for today, so if you’re in the Frankford area, go Check it out at the Eadom Street dedication.
Date; Friday, June 29
Time: 12 noon
Location: 5312-50 Eadom Street, Frankford
If you can’t make it today — or even if you can — there’s another celebration going on next week, this time in the City’s Bella Vista neighborhood, where the Mayor, residents, and other dignitaries (yes, everyone IS special in the City of Brotherly Love) will be dedicating the latest addition to Philly’s amazing constellation of parks.
Date: Thursday, July 5
Time: 10:30 am
Location: 12th & Catherine Streets, Bella Vista
GreenTreks documentary on Philly greening to air on WHYY Apr 26 & 29
Apr 11th
If you’ve been following us for any period of time, you know we’re stoked to be a part of Philadelphia’s transformation from down on our luck wannabes to nation leading innovators — and yesterday’s landmark agreement between the City and US EPA reinforces the fact that there’s much more to come.
You also probably know we’ve been documenting the exciting efforts of the Philadelphia Water Department to change our cityscape into a vision of green. Besides the dozen short videos that can be found on our Green City, Clean Waters Vimeo channel, we’ve put together a 30 minute PBS special that encapsulates brings this game changing program to life.
We’re thrilled to announce it’ll be airing in a couple of weeks!
Download the flyer and pass it around.
Post it on your Facebook page, send it out on Twitter, Pin it, email it to friends.
And be sure to tune in and watch!
Kensington Green Street Unveiled
Mar 5th
As noted in this post, City officials, community partners, and the Philadelphia Water Department celebrated the completion of the first in a series of stormwater-friendly GREEN STREETS last week. We were there to capture all the action and created a video snapshot featuring Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug, Deputy Mayor Mike DiBerardinis, New Kensington CDC Director Sandy Salzman, and some local residents.
Check it out — and visit Soak it Up, Philly! for a complete schedule of upcoming events.
Soak it Up, Philly!
Mar 2nd
Unless you’ve been pulling a Rip van Winkle lately, you’ve heard it before: As part of its long-term commitment to improving the health of the City’s waterways, the Philadelphia Water Department is focusing a great deal of attention on a “greening” approach.
What you may not realize is just how many PWD “green infrastructure” projects are popping up all over the city. Or how they are having a truly transformative effect on the ‘hoods where they’re being put into place.
The first of a series of public events unveiling some of the projects (see Soak it Up, Philly) was held March 1 in Fishtown where Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug, Deputy Mayor for Environmental and Community Resources and Commissioner of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation Mike DiBerardinis, New Kensington Community Development Corporation President Sandy Salzman, and other dignitaries were on hand to celebrate the completion of Philadelphia’s first stormwater-friendly GREEN STREET.
A green street restores some of our urban landscape’s natural function by capturing rain or snowmelt (stormwater runoff) and allowing it to soak into the soil instead of flowing directly into the City’s sewer system. This not only helps reduce pollution and prevents flooding, it brings a host of other benefits to a neighborhood, including beautification, cleaner air, and a renewed sense of community pride.
The Waterview Recreation Center in the East Falls neighborhood uses the same kind of stormwater tree trenches that were used in Fishtown. This video explains more about why rainwater runoff is a problem and how these “green tools” work:
Keeping Water On Site: Waterview Recreation Center from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.
For everything you ever wanted to know about runoff and what’s being done about it, visit StormwaterPA.org.
For more videos about Philly’s exciting Green City, Clean Waters program, check out our Vimeo Channel.
And be sure to follow PWD’s Blog.
Maybe it’s time to Remember the River
Feb 16th
With all of the discussion about drilling for gas in the upper Delaware River watershed and dredging in the tidal portion, we thought it a good time to revisit the Delaware from the perspective of those who value it in a wide range of ways.
We created the following Remember the River video for our friends at the Delaware Riverkeeper Network as part of their ongoing campaign to provide this amazing waterway with a voice at the table. The video was derived in a large part from our PBS documentary Life on the Delaware, which aired on stations throughout the country. If you’re interested in a copy, Life on the Delaware is available here.
Remember the River from GreenTreks Network on Vimeo.
If this moves you to want to get involved, join the Riverkeeper’s e-activist team and stay up to date on what you can do to help protect this treasured resource!
