Distillations | Science History Institute How Philadelphia's Water Pollution Problems Shaped the City
Jan 7, 2020
Adam Levine, historian at the Philadelphia Water Department, Alexis Schulman, stormwater history researcher, and Rigoberto Hernandez, reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, trace three centuries of the city’s water story. They cover Dock Creek’s burial, Fairmount Waterworks and early sanitation, the rise of combined sewers, filtration and chlorination, and the modern debate between gray tunnels and green infrastructure.
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Why The City Chose Combined Sewers
- Philadelphia's choice of a combined sewer was shaped by knowledge ceilings and path dependency rather than simple negligence.
- Alexis Schulman explains cities act with limited information and past investments lock future decisions into certain directions.
Dock Creek Became Philadelphia's Open Sewer
- Dock Creek ran through early Philadelphia and became the city's open sewer by 1763, filled with tannery and slaughterhouse waste.
- Benjamin Franklin and citizens covered the creek to mask miasmas after yellow fever outbreaks, a public-health act rooted in the era's beliefs.
Fairmount Waterworks Tied City To The Rivers
- The Fairmount Waterworks drew cleaner water from the Schuylkill and used gravity and water wheels after steam pumps failed.
- The city bought upstream land (Fairmount Park) to protect the watershed, showing early awareness of land-water links.