Cleaning up the Delaware

Philadelphia is a big city that sits along two big rivers. 70 years ago the Delaware was so polluted it could corrode the paint off the hulls of ships (the Schuylkill river was also considered “dead” at that time). There was no dissolved oxygen in the waters near Philadelphia, nor were there any fish.  Tons of raw sewage flowing into the river depleted the oxygen and the stench of hydrogen sulfide was sickening to sailors who pulled into the port. It had a reputation for being one of the filthiest rivers in the world, but still, it never caught fire like the Cuyahoga river in Cleveland, Ohio.

By the mid-20th century the state of the country’s natural waters finally caught the attention of the federal government and laws were enacted to begin stemming the flow of sewage and toxic waste into the nation’s waterways. In 1970, Americans celebrated the first Earth Day and President Nixon signed the bill that created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Two years later Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the effect of this legislation in the ensuing years has been transformative. 

Today you see boaters, anglers, and others enjoying Philadelphia’s waterways in different ways. There are dozens of species of fish that call the rivers home, but there is more work to be done. A goal of the CWA was to create fishable and swimmable waters. Philadelphia still has a way to go to make our urban waterways clean enough to swim in, but some other cities are achieving that goal.

Success Stories from Other Cities

Portland, Oregon has numerous locations within the city where residents can dive in to the Willamette river for a swim. Prior to 2011, Portland also had significant issues with sewage being diverted to the river during rainstorms. This is similar to Philadelphia’s combined sewer overflow system where stormwater, mixed with wastewater, overwhelms the system and gets diverted to outflow pipes in our rivers. Portland uses green stormwater infrastructure, but also embarked on a major construction project of “Big Pipes” that can handle the extra flow during storms. It sends the water to the wastewater treatment plants and has resulted in water clean enough to swim in. 

Chicago has a long history of river swims, but the river still isn’t clean enough to insure a safe swim every day. They’ve had pollution issues similar to Philadelphia, and other large older cities, with raw sewage overflowing into the river during storms. Chicago is tackling the sewer overflow problem by building a deep tunnel system, set to be completed in 2029. This infrastructure should almost completely eliminate sewer overflows into the Chicago river. In the meantime, city government has not given the green light to residents wanting to swim. But many are hopeful. The city had its last Chicago River Swim one hundred years ago, but they plan to have their first one of the 21st century this fall. With a shift in attitude and major new infrastructure, the Chicago River Swim may become a regular event.

Philadelphia may still have a swimmable future. Our rivers are the cleanest they’ve been in over a century. There are a lot of nonprofit organizations pressuring city government to fulfill the promise of the CWA. Other cities have invested in infrastructure that prevents sewage from entering local waterways so we know it can be done. City government and the Philadelphia Water department should be proactive about cleaning up our two rivers and not just continue to go with the flow…