Green City, Clean Waters (Video): Philadelphia Manages Rainwater with “Green Infrastructure”
Philadelphia’s Bold Plan
When it rains in the City of Brotherly Love, problems soon follow because more than half the city has “combined” sewers – pipes that carry both storm water and sewage. When it rains, the system fills quickly. The surplus, which includes raw sewage and road oil, backs up into basements and gushes untreated into rivers through 164 overflow pipes.
Create a Giant Sponge
Instead of going the route of many other cities and building miles-long, multibillion-dollar tunnels to hold storm-water overflows — and then pumping it back into the system when the rain stops — Philadelphia’s 20-year stormwater management plan is based on “green infrastructure” and offers benefits that can be appreciated above the ground.
Philadelphia’s plan envisions transforming the city into an oasis of rain gardens, green roofs, treescapes, and porous pavements, which advocates say is cheaper than tunnels and makes for a more liveable, prettier city with higher property values and better 
community health.
According to Howard Neukrug, the Philadelphia Water Department’s Director of the Office of Watersheds, “We are taking that (old, grey infrastructure) barrier down, and are stopping the water from ever hitting the system.”
To Learn More:
To read more about Philadelphia’s bold plan for green infrastructure, click on these links to access stories previously published on Water Bucket :
- Clean Water….Green City: Blending the interests of land and water in Philadelphia
- Philadelphia’s bold plan for rainwater/stormwater management envisions “giant sponge”
- Philadelphia plans to invest $1.6 billion to turn a third of city green in next 20 years
And click here to access the homepage for the Philadelphia Water Department’s Office of Watersheds.
