Sustainable Urban Communities: Background of the Deleware Direct

Watershed

Building

Environmental

Awareness

and RelationshipsBy: Jorge Davila & Christopher McKenzie

Delaware Direct Watershed

December 2012

BE

A R

Philadelphia, PA

*Cover Photo Curtesy of University of Michigan-PiTE

Greenbuild Expo 2013Page 1

Habitat for HumanityPage 2

History of Philadelphia’s WatershedsPage 3-4

Philadelphia Water DepartmentPage 5

Green Cities, Clean WaterPage 6

Green Storm WaterPage 7-8

Deleware Direct WatershedPage 9-10

Deleware Direct Watershed PartnershipPage 11-12

Schuylkill Action NetworkPage 13-14

Juveniles Active in Science and Technology Page 15-16

BEAR: DELAWARE DIRECT WATERSHED

The green building movement is a global

movement. The good we are working for

is universal; our actions are local and re-

gional; our impact is worldwide. Today we unite behind a shared sense of

what truly matters and a common hope for the future, because we believe

in better buildings — places that give people better, brighter, healthi-

er spaces to live, work and play. In 2013,

Philadelphia will host the 11th annual

Greenbuild International Conference and

Expo. Green building professionals from

around the world will convene in Phila-

delphia to share the latest developments in energy-efficient technology

and design. From researchers who are pushing the envelope in rethink-

ing how we build, to non-profits like Habitat Philadelphia who put those

ideas to use in service to the community, the Greenbuild Internation-

al Conference brings the industry's very best in 2013 to Philadelphia.

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Building Houses, Building Hope, Building Philadelphia

To celebrate the conference, the Delaware

Valley Green Building Council (DVG-

BC) has challenged thousands of com-

panies and organizations in the city to showcase our collective dedication

to making Philadelphia one of the greenest cities in the country. Habitat

Philadelphia has pledged to build to LEED-Silver standards on all new

construction projects by 2013, underscoring our commitment to sustain-

ability. Habitat Philadelphia builds to high energy efficiency standards

both in rehabbed homes and new construction homes. We focus on re-

habbing and building Philadelphia-style rowhomes, which have proven

themselves to be an energy efficient design throughout time. The efficien-

cy, beauty, and architectural design of 100+ years are preserved through

the rehab process, and utilizing the current housing stock means that we

can keep valuable construction materials out of the landfill. While build-

ing new row homes ensures that we are maintaining the urban fabric of

Philadelphia and utilizing the time tested precedent of the rowhouse.

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In the mid-19th century when industry and development prospered

in Philadelphia, its population growth marked the decline of sani-

tary conditions. The common norm to dump industrial waste and hu-

man sewage into creeks and streams, rapidly polluted larger water bodies

such as, the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. The negative effects on hu-

man health produced by contaminated factories made city officials and

engineers take radical measures. They built an infrastructure of combined

sewers which systematically altered forever the City’s topography and hy-

drology. Natural watersheds were used to facilitate drainage, and most

of Philadelphia’s surface creeks and streams became the framework from

which pipes were planned. Placing sewers in creek beds were cost effective

since they used gravity flow, and leveling off the natural stream valleys al-

lowed for subdivision of land without changing topography. Consequent-

ly, the street grid could be implemented more methodically on level land,

and polluted waterways no longer interfered with inland development.

History of Philadelphia’s Watersheds

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The result of erasing surface creeks and streams transformed hydrologi-

cal conditions. From the 283 linear miles of streams that once existed in

Philadelphia to carry runoff to the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers, only

118 miles still remain today. Currently 73% of Philadelphia’s waterways are

piped which produces low flow of water in the City’s creeks and streams.

It was in the early 20th century that city planners realized

the negative impacts of piping streams. Today, the Philadel-

phia Water Department is addressing modern challenges of wa-

ter management resources and infrastructure in an innovative way.

Historic Waterways Current Waterways

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The City of Philadelphia’s

Program for Combined

Sewer Overflow Control

represents the City of Philadelphia’s

commitment towards meeting its

regulatory obligations while helping

to revitalize the City. Through evalu-

ation of a number of alternative im-

plementation approaches, the city of

Philadelphia determined that a green

storm water infrastructure-based

approach would provide maximum

return in environmental, economic,

and social benefits within the most

efficient timeframe, making it the

best approach for the City of Phila-

delphia.

Since 2011 and over the next five years,

the Philadelphia Water Department

(PWD) will lay the foundation for

achieving the Green City, Clean Wa-

ters vision over the full 25 year im-

plementation period of this plan and

beyond. The desire to ensure the city’s

watersheds are healthy while build-

ing a competitive, sustainable future

for Philadelphia is shared by other

City agencies, partner organizations,

and residents, who have expressed

enthusiastic support for achieving its

vision of Green City, Clean Waters.

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The vision of the Green City, Clean Waters program of the PWD is: • Put less emphasis on the use of traditional infrastructure since its high cost, and instead pledge City’s resources toward greening the City while meeting ecological restoration goals. • Unite the City of Philadelphia with its water environment • The integration of Combine Sewer Overflow Control and water resourc-es management into the socioeconomic fabric of the City by creating ame-nities for the people who live and work there. • PWD’s Green City, Clean Waters program integrates management of Philadelphia’s watersheds into a larger context

Plan of Action: • Large-scale implementation of green storm water infrastructure to man-age runoff at the source on public land and reduce demands on sewer in-frastructure • Requirements and incentives for green storm water infrastructure to manage runoff at the source on private land and reduce demands on sewer infrastructure • A large-scale street tree program to manage storm water at the source on City streets • Preserved open space utilized to manage storm water at the source • Converted vacant and abandoned lands to open space and responsible redevelopment • Restored streams with physical habitat enhancements that support healthy aquatic communities

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Green Storm Water Infrastructure

Acknowledging the symbiotic relationship between land use and water re-sources, the definition of green stormwater infrastructure includes a range of soil-water-plant systems that intercept stormwater, infiltrate a portion of it into the ground, evaporate a portion of it into the air, and in some cases release a portion of it slowly back into the sewer system.Green storm water infrastructure examples include:

• Bioretention planters in sidewalks and parking lots• Green roofs, and roof leaders that run off into lawns• Rain gardens.

These vegetated features manage rain where it hits the ground similar to the way a natural system such as a forest or a meadow would handle the rain runoff. Green stormwater infrastructure also involves the restoration of physical habitats in stream channels, along stream corridors, and on riverfronts. Restoration of stream habitats and riverfronts can also be com-bined with commitments to improve public access and amenities along the stream corridors.

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The benefits of used Green Storm Water Infrastructure in the City of Philadelphia

For the PWD it’s critical to embed the Combine Sewer Overflow (CSO) program in the larger context of the various economic, social, and envi-ronmental challenges. These chal-lenges require that the government agencies break out of their tradi-tional roles of providing narrowly defined services and seek to work together toward larger goals. PWD’s Long Term Control Plan Update (LTCPU) rightly focuses on signifi-cantly reducing CSOs, thereby mak-ing Philadelphia’s creeks and rivers cleaner and healthier. But as the sin-gle largest investment in the City’s environment over the next 25 years, it presents a unique opportunity to be much more than just a water quality improvement program and reverse the decline in the physical infrastructure in the City. It must be designed to provide additional ben-efits beyond the reduction of CSOs, so that every investment made pro-vides a maximum return in benefits to the City.

Economic Benefits • Green Stormwater Infrastructure Jobs Reduce the Social Cost of Pov-erty. Green stormwater infrastruc-ture creates jobs which require no prior experience and are suitable for individuals who might be otherwise unemployed and living in poverty.

Social Benefits• Green Stormwater Infrastructure enhances recreation since Improved access, appearance, and opportuni-ties in public areas, and make them more desirable destinations for the public.• Green Stormwater Infrastructure improves community quality of live. Trees and parks are an important part of the recipe that together can transform an urban neighborhood into an inviting, exciting place to live, work and play.• Green Stormwater Infrastructure Restores Ecosystems. It improves ecosystems by allowing rain to soak into the ground and return slowly to streams, thereby restoring a water cycle more similar to a natural wa-tershed.

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The Delaware River Basin extends to the Catskill Mountains in New York State and stretches approximately 330 miles through four states and 42 counties and it drains its waters through the Delaware Estuary to the At-lantic Ocean. Philadelphia’s entire land surface ultimately drains to one of seven watersheds that are tributaries to the Delaware River. The main stem of the Delaware River serves a variety of important residential and indus-trial functions, including fishing, transportation, power cooling, and rec-reational purposes, but most importantly as a source of drinking water.The Philadelphia Water Department is focused on the management of wa-ter resources within its portion of the watershed. Consequently , most of its planning activities are related to the Delaware Direct Watershed, which comprises the area of the City of Philadelphia that drains directly to the Delaware River and generally consists of the Delaware River Waterfront and several city blocks of inland area where the future Empower House will be build with the assistance of Philadelphia Habitats for Humanity.

Delware Direct Watershed

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The Importance to link the efforts of the PWD with community stakeholders:

• PWD is currently developing an Integrated Watershed Management Plan to facilitate restoration, enhancement, and sustainable improvements.

• To help guide the Integrated Watershed Management Planning process, PWD has initiated the Delaware Direct Watershed Partnership to provide input from various stakeholder viewpoints and to collaborate on watershed projects.

• PWD is completing the Delaware River Conservation Plan to create an en-vironmental and cultural planning inventory for this highly urbanized wa-tershed. Through this planning process, creative community outreach events took place in the watershed and brought together a group of watershed stake-holders that has evolved into the Delaware Direct Watershed Partnership.

• PWD participates in the Coalition for Philadelphia’s Riverfronts to support high-quality, continuous, connected riverfront greenways along the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. This greenway will contain a multi-use trail and vegetated green space to manage stormwater, pro-tect the rivers from pollution, and attract wildlife back to the riverbanks.

• The Model Neighborhoods Initiative includes many neighbor-hoods in the Delaware Direct Watershed, including New Kens-ington/Fishtown, Northern Liberties, Pennsport, Passyunk Square, Lower Moyamensing and North Philadelphia.

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Delaware Direct Watershed Partnership was originally formed to support the River Conservation planning process for the Delaware Direct River Conservation Plan. The partnership grouped a number of stakeholders such as nonprofits, state and local government, and community representatives. Every one of the stakeholders represents a current planning initiative. These initiatives vary from neighborhood planning efforts all the way to large-scale waterfront development plans. Through the Partnership, the representatives find a space to coordinated and communicate the best possible practices to achieve protection of the natural resources and their sustainability in the urbanized Delaware Direct Watershed. Currently, the Partnership is helping guide the development of PWD’s Integrated Watershed Management Plan.

Delaware Direct Watershed Partnership

PWD considers the following as part of the site selection process

• Partnership opportunities

• Combined sewer area

• Capacity to manage a significant amount of stormwater runoff including public runoff (at least 8,000 sf)

• Project site must be attached to at least 1 stormwater inlet

• Technical feasibility

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Contact Information

Paul Racette - Partnership Facilitator Pennsylvania Environmental Council Phone: (215) 592-7020 x112 Email: pracette@pecpa.org

For more information visit:http://www.phillywatersheds.org/del_working

- Conatact Paul Racette, Partnership Facilitator

- Ask for any current efforts existing in the neighborhood

- Coordinate possible conjunction with these groups

- Discuss the possiblity of where you could be most useful in terms of what to encourage to be developed and implemented into the design of the Green Build house amongst the neighborhood to demonstrate tangible watershed preventative methods

Next Steps

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The Schuylkill Action Network (SAN) focuses on improving the water re-sources of the Schuylkill River watershed. SAN strives to restore and protect the watershed as a regional drinking water source, promote stewardship and education, transfer the experience and lessons learned to other communi-ties, and enhance intergovernmental communication and coordination. The organization also coordinates stakeholder efforts to better utilize resources and prioritize restoration efforts to improve water quality. SAN leads resto-ration efforts by seeking funds, leveraging those funds with additional fi-nances, providing detailed information and data, and aligning partnerships.

Storm Water Runoff Projects

• Green guide from property management: A guide to help large property owners identify green projects to reduce storm water pollution.

• Outdoor classroom workshop for educators: It is an outdoor classroom workshop, educating watershed teachers on ways to incorporate water shed Best Management Practices (BMPs) such as Riparian Buffers, Rain Gardens, and Woodland Gardens, into their classroom curriculum.

• StormwaterPA: it is a collaborative effort that highlights storm water management innovations – and provides developers, municipal officials, and engineers with the tools to transform local runoff problems from unwanted nuisance into beneficial resource.

Schuylkill Action Network

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Contact Information Dee RossStorm Water Runoff WorkgroupPhone: (800) 445-4935 x 106Email: Dross@DelawareEstuary.org

For more information visit: http://www.schuylkillwaters.org/contact_us.cfm

Next Steps

- Contact Dee Ross

- Discuss possibilities of partnerhsips to align with our project

- **After figuring out what efforts of water pollution preventional methods to implement:

-Discuss where to get resources from the local area to aid in the completion of water quality improvement system

-If needed, the possiblity of additonal funding to showcase a more elaborate, but still affordable for those who want to spend a little more money, design method to prevent pollution of the watershed

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Juveniles Active in Science & Technology Development Services (JAS-TECH): it is a non-profit company establish in 1998. The company was created primarily to contribute with the improvement of the Environ-ment, education and Public Health. Its aim is to provide access to in-formation to the public from inner city that will advance the qual-ity of their lives. To achieve this objective, JASTECH provides to the public training programs, workshops, lectures and community partnerships.

Work Related to our project:

• Stormwater Management System: It teaches the use of bioretention basins, swale and green roof systems, and pervious surfacing to manage the site’s stormwater. Through the use of porous pavers and asphalt in the parking and courtyard areas, reduced rainwater flows will run off into the municipal combined-sanitary sewers.

• Urban Garden: It teaches how to restore native fauna and natural wood land in an urban setting. The urban garden will restore biodiversity, improve air quality, provide habitat for wildlife, reduce the “heat island” effect, reduce rainwater runoff, and improve soil filtration and porosity. Signage will describe the function of a native habitat.

Juveniles Active in Science and Technology

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Contact Information:

Phone: (215) 879-7770 Email: info@jastechdevelopment.org

P.O Box 28711 6134 Lancaster Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19151

For more information visit: http://www.jastechdevelopment.org/default.asp

Next Steps

- Contact them to figure out possible further partnerships

- Discuss the possiblity of teaming up with their workshops/ training programs/ lectures and the youth to raise awareness amongst the neighborhoods about tips and tricks that an individual can do in a day to improve their carbon footpring they leave on the local watersheds

- Focus on getting a specific workshop surrounding the building site

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