Spotlight on Superior Stormwater Programs
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:
A Watershed Approach to Water Quality Management
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Philadelphia at a Glance
Population:
Land Area:
Average Annual Rainfall:
Number of Watersheds:
Water Quality Issues:
NPDES Permit Status:
Smart Watershed Score:
Contact Information
1,463,281
142.6 mi2
42 inches
8
Bacteria, nutrients, sediment
Phase I
93
Christopher S. Crockett, Ph.D., P.E.
Manager - Watershed Protection
Philadelphia Water Dept. - Office of Watersheds
1101 Market St„ 4th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-685-6234
Chris.Crockett@phila.gov
Locator Map
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Spollujh'i: on Superior Stormwater Programs
Why is Philadelphia Unique?
The City of Philadelphia is located in
southeastern Pennsylvania at the
confluence of the Delaware River and its
smaller tributary, the Schuylkill. The
city is one of the oldest communities in
the United States and has had a
significant role in the nation's history.
Currently, Philadelphia is the fifth most
populous city in the United States and
the largest in population and area in the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The City has a long history of
environmental planning and natural
resource protection. Philadelphia has an
extensive parks system that includes
urban squares, natural areas (including
stream corridors, woodlands, meadows
and wetlands), street trees, and many
neighborhood parks. One of the first
urban parks, Fairmount Park, was
created in the 1800s to protect water
resources and the first water treatment
facility built in the US. The commitment
to environmental protection continues
today, where programs such as the
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's
comprehensive urban greening program
"Philadelphia Green" work to create and
provide ongoing care for community
gardens, neighborhood parks and high-
profile public green spaces.
Philadelphia's commitment to water
resource protection is demonstrated by
the fact that it is of one of the few
communities in the US with an Office of
Watersheds (OOW) (Figure 1). The
OOW is a unit of the Philadelphia Water
Department's (PWD) Planning and
Engineering Division. The Office of
Watersheds was formed in January 1999
by integrating three historically
separated programs: Combined Sewer
Overflow, Stormwater Management, and
Source Water Protection. The OOW is
working to achieve measurable
improvements in the region's waterways
by implementing planning and
management strategies that promote
good science, public involvement, and
fiscal responsibility. The goal is to meet
regulatory requirements while enhancing
the health and aesthetics of local
watersheds. The City and its suburban
neighbors are beginning to plan and
work together on voluntary watershed
management initiatives that will provide
improved water quality and a fair
allocation of costs.
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Figure 1. Office of Watersheds Logo
The new watershed based planning focus
has resulted in the adoption of an
innovative stormwater ordinance. The
new stormwater regulations became
effective January 1, 2006 and are
intended to meet state and federal
requirements, improve water quality and
stream protection, and reduce flooding.
These regulations are an outgrowth of
recent watershed planning efforts with
upstream municipalities and detail
stormwater management criteria for
water quality, channel protection, and
flood control. The changes more clearly
define storm water requirements for new
development and redevelopment projects
that include controls to improve the
quality of stormwater prior to discharge
and reduce the erosive effects of
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Spollujh'i: on Superior Stormwater Programs
stormwater, as well as providing for
increased groundwater recharge. The
regulations also require consideration of
non-structural site design practices such
as protecting existing site features,
disturbing the smallest area possible and
minimizing impervious cover in meeting
stormwater requirements.
OOW is also a partner in a Stormwater
BMP Recognition Program. This
program recognizes innovative
stormwater treatment practices such as
rain gardens, green roofs, infiltration
swales, and treatment wetlands in the
southeastern region of Pennsylvania.
The program is designed to increase
awareness and understanding of
innovative stormwater management and
create incentives to continue the
development of stormwater treatment
practices. Selected participants receive
recognition through a certificate and/or
award at an awards ceremony,
acknowledgment on the PWD website,
and region-wide media exposure in
partner newsletters and the PWD
newsletter, which reaches more than
500,000 households and businesses.
The watershed focus permits the PWD to
address some pressing water quality
problems. Philadelphia has nearly 1,600
miles of sewers that handle storm water
along with wastewater flows. These
combined sewers can overflow during
wet weather events, resulting in the
delivery of untreated sewage to local
waterways. In addition, a number of
stream segments have TMDLs for
habitat modification, bacteria, runoff
flow, and siltation. OOW's emphasis on
comprehensive watershed management
planning allows them to creatively find
solutions to these problems through
programs that promote community
greening, impervious cover reduction,
and pollution prevention.
Why is Philadelphia an
Outstanding Phase 1
Community?
The OOW is developing integrated
watershed management plans for the five
major tributary streams of the Schuylkill
and Delaware Rivers within the city
limits (Figure 2). Designed to meet the
goals and objectives of numerous, water
resources-related regulations and
programs, integrated watershed
management plans recommend the use
of adaptive management approaches to
implement recommendations watershed-
wide. The focus is on attaining priority
environmental goals related to improved
habitat, water quality, and water quantity
in a phased approach, making use of the
consolidated goals of the numerous
existing programs that directly or
indirectly require watershed planning.
Monitoring plays an important role in
the success of each watershed
management plan. The planning process
begins by characterizing the baseline
conditions through extensive sampling
and multi-year monitoring in the
watershed, which documents the
condition of aquatic resources, including
water quality, biological communities,
habitat, and geomorphology. This
comprehensive assessment gives a
snapshot of the current conditions, and
allows stakeholders to set plan goals and
objectives and develop specific
indicators to track the future progress
toward these goals.
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Figure 2. Philadelphia's Watersheds
An example of the comprehensive
watershed management planning process
being used is the Cobbs Creek Integrated
Watershed Management Plan. Cobbs
Creek is a 22 square mile urban
watershed in the city that suffers from
storm water and combined sewer
overflow problems. The watershed has
almost 50% impervious cover, is home
to more than 135,000 residents, and
contains extensive open space and
recreational users. A sub watershed plan
was created in 2004 to implement more
than $200 million of restoration
practices over the next 20 years to
achieve three progressively ambitious
goals: improve dry-weather water
quality and aesthetics in the stream
corridor; restore healthy living resources
in the stream; and improve water quality
and flooding during wet-weather
conditions. The 10 project goals that
were established represent all the
regulatory and non-regulatory programs
relevant to the watershed, together with
specific associated objectives designed,
to translate the larger goals into more
measurable quantities. More than 20
different indicators were selected to
track progress toward each goal during
the 20-year period. Continued
monitoring is expected to maintain
public interest and allow the plan to be
adapted over time to improve the
performance and cost-effective delivery
of restoration projects
Recently, the Smart Watersheds
Benchmarking Tool was used to
evaluate how well Philadelphia
implements and integrates its stormwater
and watershed restoration programs.
Philadelphia scored very well, receiving
a total of 93 points out of 115, which
included extra credit for some of its
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programs. Box 1 highlights some of
Philadelphia's stronger programs that
received high scores using the Smart
Watersheds Benchmarking Tool.
Box 1. Philadelphia's High Scoring Smart
Watersheds Program Areas
• Subwatershed Restoration Planning
• Stream and Subwatershed Assessment
• Watershed Monitoring and Reporting
• Management of Natural Area Remnants
• Detect and Eliminate Illicit Discharges
• Public Involvement and Neighborhood
Consultation
• Watershed Education and Personal
Stewardship
How is Philadelphia's
Watershed Program Funded?
The Water Department invests roughly a
quarter of a billion dollars every year
through combined operating and capital
budgets to protect the region's
watersheds. An OOW budget of $7
million per year for staff and contracts is
derived from the operating budget of the
Planning Division. This does not include
capital projects or the costs for field staff
from other units. The city's stormwater
utility generates $92 million per year.
The sewer utility, which includes most
of the CSO charges and capital projects
related to CSO plus stormwater, then
adds in the other $150 million per year,
putting the total at roughly $250 million
per year in combined capital and
operating budgets.
Philadelphia's Innovative
Stormwater Programs
Philadelphia's stormwater programs and
initiatives emphasize the use of a holistic
watershed approach which integrates
both structural and nonstructural
stormwater practices into a unified
process to improve water quality. Public
involvement and outreach is also a
program cornerstone, with extensive use
of the internet to relay information
regarding watershed planning, water
quality, and stormwater maintenance to
watershed residents.
Ecosystem Restoration
A critical aspect of watershed
management planning efforts is to
improve conditions for fish and benthic
organisms, and to enhance the pollutant
reduction functions of riparian and
wetland plants. To achieve these goals,
PWD has developed three Ecosystem
Restoration Programs, which are
designed to improve riparian habitat.
These programs are the Stream
Restoration, Wetlands Restoration, and
Natural Lands Preservation & Protection
Programs. This year PWD conducted its
first Natural Channel Stream Design and
Restoration on the Wises Mill tributary
of the Wissahickon Creek. The Saylor
Grove Wetland, the first stormwater
treatment wetland in the city, was
constructed and has been operational
since May 2006. A project to address
runoff from the Monastery Stables into
Wissahickon Creek has also been
completed. In October 2006, PWD
distributed approximately 200 rain
barrels to citizens in the Wissahickon
Creek as part of a long term annual rain
barrel distribution program. Also,
projects are scheduled to start for the
natural channel stream design and
restoration of the Red Rambler Run, a
tributary of Pennypack Creek. Another
project is scheduled for the Saul
Agricultural High School to develop
stream bank fencing and riparian buffers
to address runoff.
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Cleaning & Greening
00W has implemented a Green City
Program that emphasizes the use of
sustainable, locally-based greening
projects, such as street tree plantings, lot
conversions to green space and
community gardens. These projects,
favored by community groups, are more
aesthetically pleasing and use rainwater
as a resource. They are environmentally
friendly and less costly than the
traditional disruptive practice of
constructing new underground
infrastructure.
OOW supports a comprehensive
regional tree planting program called
Tree Vitalize. Tree plantings are a
component of most projects completed
in partnership with the OOW. To date,
OOW has already contributed to the
planting of over 500 trees within the
City of Philadelphia. As part of this
program, OOW will partner with the
Fairmount Park Commission to receive
$300,000 over a three year period to
plant up to 84 acres of forested riparian
buffers throughout Philadelphia's park
system.
The Campus Park Initiative aims to
create outdoor spaces that are at every
school throughout the school district
over the next five years. The program is
based on the idea that students must
have access to outdoor facilities that are
stimulating, safe, and conducive to an
array of appropriate uses. PWD's role
within the initiative is to supply
technical assistance to landscape
architects and designers to incorporate
stormwater best management practices
(BMPs) and outdoor watershed
education areas into the site designs.
The School District of Philadelphia
Green Roof Program recently
constructed a new high school in West
Philadelphia that includes a 9,800 SF
vegetated roof. The remainder of roof
runoff is collected in a 25,000 gallon
cistern to be reused for toilet flushing.
Other site BMP features include grass
pavers and disconnected impervious
surfaces.
The PWD has initiated several activities
in 2006 to keep pollution out of local
waterways. For instance, the cleaning of
77,603 storm drain inlets removed over
20,000 tons of debris. The Waterways
Restoration Unit also removed
approximately 424 tons of debris from
124 sites in local waterways including
21 cars, 396 tires, and 124 shopping
carts. The city has also used a
Skimming/Floatable Vessel in the
Delaware and tidal Schuylkill River to
remove 17 tons of floatable debris
during 2 month period in 2006. They are
also providing technical and financial
assistance (through EPA) for field
testing of a Skimming/ Floatable
Pontoon Boat in the non-tidal Schuylkill
River.
Expanded Stormwater Management
In January 2006, PWD implemented
new stormwater management regulations
for new and redevelopment in the City
of Philadelphia and developed staffing
capabilities to coordinate with PADEP
and function in the capacity similar to a
Conservation District. Now not only is
development greater than 5,000 square
feet of earth disturbance subject to
stormwater management for water
quality, channel erosion, and flood
control, but erosion and sediment control
and construction inspections are
performed by two new full time PWD
erosion and sediment inspectors. From
January to June 2006, 63 e erosion and
sediment control plans were reviewed
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and 51 site visits were conducted to 33
construction sites including actions such
as reporting to PADEP for violations or
issuance of site shut-down order from
Licenses and Inspection
In addition, through the efforts to
implement new stormwater regulations,
PWD has worked with other city
agencies to revamp the city development
process to require conceptual approval
for stormwater management prior to
zoning to ensure developers are aware of
their stormwater management
requirements prior to zoning permit
issuance to prevent site redesigns. As a
result of these efforts, PWD has
reviewed plans for stormwater
management that will impact stormwater
management for future development
covering more than a square mile of the
city and over 18 million gallons of
stormwater annually that will be
infiltrated instead of sent to local
streams. PWD's regulations also
provided incentives for low impact
development techniques which have
encouraged an increased number of
submissions proposing green roofs and
several porous pavement parking lots.
From January to June 2006, 364
conceptual plans for zoning approval
have been reviewed for stormwater
management and 105 full technical plan
reviews have been conducted. The City
has also incorporated many innovative
retrofits into its own municipal projects
to address stormwater runoff (Figure 3).
Defective Laterals Repair
Ten years ago PWD initiated its
defective lateral program. Since that
time, hundreds of defective laterals have
been fixed and thousands of inspections
and tests conducted. A comprehensive
review of PWD efforts in the
Monoshone Creek has shown dramatic
reductions in outfall and in-stream
bacteria measurements suggesting that
efforts to date have made significant
progress towards meeting in-stream
water quality goals. The study also
indicates that defective lateral
abatements were the most cost-effective
technique resulting in much lower cost
per bacteria unit reduced compared to
sewer relining and stormwater treatment
wetlands.
The positive in-stream results and
overall low annual bacteria load
contribution compared to stormwater
runoff suggests that these activities may
be reaching the point of diminished
returns in the Monoshone sewershed on
a per dollar spent basis. In addition,
PWD is conducting studies of cutting
edge technologies such as antimicrobial
filters inside stormwater outfalls as an
interim method of reducing high dry
weather bacteria concentrations to
receiving streams while the defective
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lateral testing and abatement programs
continue to achieve long term solutions.
Education
PWD has been educating the public
about water for over 21 years. In 2006,
the department has mailed twelve
stormwater-related educational bill
staffers to more than 460,000
households. The PWD also funds and
devotes resources to the Fairmount
Waterworks Interpretive Center, which
educates more than 30,000 visitors
annually about the Schuylkill River,
non-point source pollution, and ways
they affect water quality. The Center
offers more than 30 educational
activities including events, tours,
handbooks, public meetings,
certification and training programs,
partnerships, etc. The Fairmount website
also has a Fish Ladder Web Viewer that
allows the public to view real time and
on-line the passage of fish and other
creatures through the Fairmount Fish
Ladder.
In addition to general water quality
education, the Department also has
several programs targeted to specific
groups. The Golf Course Certification
program targets to golf course managers
in the Schuylkill River watershed, and
seeks to change fertilizer and pesticide
application behaviors. The "Smart
Boating, Clean W7aters Campaign" is
designed to educate recreational water
users and provide technical assistance to
marinas, boat launch ramps, yacht club
operators and other facility operators.
The Watershed Information Center
Website provides an internet-based
compendium and clearinghouse of
watershed information including studies,
data, and resources for public access
(Figure 4). Residents can learn about the
partnerships in their area, identify their
watershed, and report trash in
waterways. The OOW also hosts the
Philly Rivercast website, the first online
tool in the world that predicts bacteria
water quality for recreation on the
Schuylkill River for the 100,000 annual
users in and along the river.
Monitoring Programs
The OOW Watershed Monitoring
&Assessment Program is responsible for
the collection and assessment of
biological information to measure the
impact of physical, chemical, and
biological stressors to Southeastern
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measuring all factors that contribute to
supporting fishable, swimmable, and
drinkable water uses, PWD can then
develop appropriate management
strategies for each watershed.
Comprehensive assessment is integral to
planning for the long-term health and
sustainability of local water resources.
Monitoring of all five watersheds is
carried out on a rotating basis, one
watershed per year.
PWD has recently developed and
implemented an extensive sediment
monitoring program, which was used to
help develop the tributary restoration
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feasibility ranking for Wissahickon
Creek. The study suggested a large
portion of the sediment load in the city is
a result of streambank erosion, and
efforts are focused on solutions to
minimize this source. Special monitoring
included infrastructure assessments of
the entire Wissahickon, Pennypack, and
Poquessing watersheds and locating
outfalls and structures in the stream and
tributaries. Infrared monitoring via
helicopter flyovers was conducted to
detect potential dry weather discharges
of sewage inside and outside the city in
these watersheds. Projects have been
initiated to employ cutting edge research
with Drexel University and Lehigh
University to use DNA fingerprinting of
Cryptosporidium and E. coli as well as
multiple antibiotic resistance tests to
identify sources of pathogens in the
watershed.
Partnerships
OOW is a sponsor or and active member
in seven active watershed partnerships,
which include hundreds of stakeholders
covering the city's watersheds and the
entire Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers.
These partnerships have helped reach
out to public officials, change policies,
educate stakeholders, develop plans,
secure funding, and implement projects
to restore and protect local streams. It is
PWD's belief that sustainable protection
and restoration of Philadelphia's
watersheds for future generations cannot
be achieved without partnerships that
create a shared sense of stewardship of
these resources through cooperation and
communication (Crockett, 2006).
The Future of Philadelphia's
Efforts
The city of Philadelphia continues to
expand on existing stormwater programs
and plan for the impact of new growth
on water quality. Watershed
management plans have been completed
for three of city's watersheds, and by
2009, all of the city's watersheds will
have management plans. The focus will
then be on implementation of these plans
as they are completed, with an estimated
$5-10 million dollars per watershed
being spent to implement the plans in the
first five years. The implementation of a
five-year, $10 million dollar low impact
development project plan is also under
consideration.
Other examples of ongoing work include
a PCB Pollutant Minimization Plan that
has recently been completed for all the
MS4 areas. A Wissahickon Creek
Characterization Plan and a Pennypack
Creek River Conservation Plan have
been completed, and work has started on
the Poquessing Creek River
Conservation Plan. In addition, the
Wissahickon watershed plan has been
initiated and is scheduled to be
completed in 2007. PWD is also
participating in a 104(b)3 grant to
prioritize and design retrofits of
detention basins for the Wissahickon
Creek Watershed, and the project will
help develop a template to be used in
other regional watersheds.
Philadelphia's innovative efforts are
being recognized nationally. In recent
years the program has won several
awards including the 2006 Delaware
Valley Green Building Council Award
for Innovative Stormwater Management
and Low Impact Development. The
program was also recognized by the
USEPA in 2003 for its CSO program
management and Clean Water Efforts
and received a Exemplary Source Water
Protection Award from the America
Water Works Association in 2003 as the
best program in nation.
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Monitoring continues to be an important
part of the watershed program. The
OOW has detailed monitoring plans for
all 5 of the city watersheds plus the two
major rivers (Delaware and Schuylkill)
for chemical and biological monitoring
for the next 5 years. The goal of the
monitoring plans is to refine future
estimates of pollutant loads and identify
restoration project opportunities.
Monitoring efforts are providing
evidence that the OOW programs are
having a positive effect on water quality
(Box 2).
Box 2. Program Effectiveness Examples
Streambank fencing on headwaters tributary has
reduced fecal colifonns by 90% plus ammonia
and other parameters significantly improved and
had positive water quality impact on main stream
below.
New stormwater regulations infiltrate an
estimated 521 million gallons of stormwater
annually that would have entered local streams.
River otters were seen on a fish ladder camera -
this is the first time in over a century that they've
been seen in Philadelphia
The number of shad returning to the river has
increased by over 7 fold in three years
Resources
Philadelphia Water Department
Watershed Information Center
http://www.phillyriverinfo.org/
Philadelphia Water Department
Philly Rivercast
http://www.phillyrivercast.org/
Philadelphia Water Department
Watershed Partnerships
http://www.phila.gov/water/owp.html
Philadelphia Water Department
Environmental Projects Advisory
Committee,
http: //www, philly water. org/epac/ epac .htm
Fairmount Water Works Interpretive
Center
http://www.fairmountwaterworks.org/
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References
Crockett, C. 2006. Personal
Communication. Philadelphia Water
Department, Office of Watersheds,
Philadelphia, PA.
J. Dahme and L. Brunton. No Date.
Clean Water - Green City. American
Society of Civil Engineers conference
paper. Available on-line at:
http://www.phillyriverinfo.ors/WICLibra
ry prosram%20specific Written%2OMat
erialPhiladelphia%2 0 'Green %2 OCity'%
2OProsram Low %20Imyact%2ODeveloy
ment%20and%2ORedevelopment 030101
ASCE%20Conference %20Payer%20(C
lean%20Water%20Green%20Citv).pdf
Philadelphia Water Department (PWD).
2004. Cobbs Creek Integrated
Watershed Management Plan. Office of
Watersheds. Philadelphia, PA.
Philadelphia Water Department (PWD).
2006. Stormwater Management
Regulations . Office of Watersheds.
Philadelphia, PA. Available on-line:
http://www.phillyriverinfo.org/WICLibr
arv/Program%20Specific/Written%20M
aterial/Stormwater%20and%20Flood%2
0Prevention%20Program/Citv%20of%2
0Philadelphia%20Stormwater%20Regul
ations/StormwaterRegulations.pdf
This fact sheet was produced by the
Center for Watershed Protection
8390 Main Street, 2nd Floor
Ellicott City, MD 21043
www.cwp.org
Center for
WATERSHED
PROTECTION
November 2006
Funded by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency
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