“Green City, Clean Waters” – water champion Howard Neukrug fundamentally changed Philadelphia’s relationship with nature
Howard Neukrug’s Plan to Water Down Philadelphia
When he was appointed Water Commissioner in 2011, Howard Neukrug focused on making the Philadelphia Water Department a sustainable 21st Century urban water utility – one that would fully meet the complex responsibilities and opportunities of our time and our environment. He retired as Commissioner in February 2016.
Prior to that, Howard Neukrug began Philadelphia’s Office of Watersheds in 1999. As director, he led the department in creating the vision and the plan for Green City, Clean Waters, Philadelphia’s long term plan to clean up the city’s waterways.
Howard Neukrug fundamentally changed Philadelphia’s relationship with nature, and other cities are watching with great interest, wrote Pascal Mittermaier in the introduction to his recent interview of Howard Neukrug, published in the Huffington Post. “When I met with urban planners in China and in Mexico, reports about Neukrug’s work were sitting on their desks,” stated Mittermaier.
Just what is “Clean Water, Green Cities”?
“The old concept of water management was to take rainwater and discharge it as quickly as possible; the usefulness of that is zero, it is a waste. If we can capture the water before then and use it for plants and trees, we are better managing — and valuing — the water,” explained Howard Neukrug in 2014.
“To do that, we will be using watershed management, green infrastructure from rain barrels to bioswales (landscape elements designed to remove pollution from runoff water). If we really want to have drinkable, swimmable, fishable, safe rivers and streams, the only way to do that is to marry land issues to water issues.”
To Learn More:
Download Howard Neukrug’s Plan to Water Down Philadelphia to read the complete interview by Greg Salisbury in the Jewish Observer.
If Philadelphia greens up 10,000 inner city acres, what would the impact be on water quality?
“Our goal is not just to make our rivers and streams fishable and swimmable as required under the Clean Water Act, but also make our water resources drinkable, safe, attractive, accessible, abundant and available,” explained Howard Neukrug in the interview with Pascal Mittermaier.
“To do this we need to continue with our green approaches and expand and fortify our grey infrastructure where necessary. But we must also build fish ladders and waterfront access, and develop our land in a manner that respects and supports our water resources, our citizens and the ecosystems.”
To Learn More:
Download “Green City, Clean Waters”: An Interview with Philadelphia’s Howard Neukrug to read the complete interview by Pascal Mittermaier in the Huffington Post.
Pascal Mittermaier is the Global Managing Director for Cities at The Nature Conservancy. He leads a team at the Conservancy focused on transforming how the world’s growing cities harness nature’s power to build resilient, livable, thriving communities for millions of people. By mid-century roughly three out of every four people will live in a city.
