Green City, Clean Waters

Green City, Clean Waters is Philadelphia's 25-year plan to protect and enhance our watersheds by managing stormwater with innovative green infrastructure.

The Philadelphia Water Department developed the Green City, Clean Waters plan to provide a clear pathway to a sustainable and resilient future while strengthening the utility, broadening its mission and complying with environmental laws and regulations.

Nationwide, water utilities find themselves under increasing pressure as they confront a new set of complex environmental, demographic and financial challenges while also trying to meet expanded customer expectations for a safe and affordable water supply; the collection and high level treatment of wastewater and stormwater; flood protection; and clean, attractive, fishable, swimmable rivers and streams. Unfortunately this dilemma comes at a time when the City is grappling with some very real problems of population and financial decline.

Also significant are our new challenges to water quality and quantity, aging infrastructure, and the impacts of climate change on human health and our ecosystems. While changing demographics and conservation have resulted in an infrastructure system that has, in some places, provided capacity that exceeds overall needs, new regulations, energy, climatic and environmental issues will require significant new investments. Meeting these challenges requires either a significant new investment in infrastructure, or a paradigm shift in our approach to urban water resources.

During the past decade, PWD has created, tested and implemented new strategies to promote the economic and social growth of the City and meet the environmental, ecological and business missions of the utility. As the City agency charged with ensuring optimal compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act, PWD developed an infrastructure management program to protect and enhance our region’s waterways by managing stormwater runoff to significantly reduce our reliance on construction of additional underground infrastructure.

In effect, we plan to invest in green stormwater infrastructure solutions to reseed what are currently our impervious watershed hardscapes.

Key Concepts

To learn more about Green City, Clean Waters, we recommend you start with the Summary Report. To help you understand the terminology and issues behind our CSO Long Term Control Plan Update, here are some key concepts:

What is a watershed?
What is a combined sewer system (CSS) and combined sewer overflow (CSO)?
What is green stormwater infrastructure?
How does stream restoration affect water quality?

Videos

Philadelphia's Mayor Michael Nutter highlighting the Green City, Clean Waters plan at the "Charting New Waters: A call to action to address US Freshwater Challenges" event held in Washington, D.C.

Learn more about Green City, Clean Waters:

Documents

Consent Order and Agreement

Consent Order and Agreement executed with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection on June 1, 2011 for the implementation of the Philadelphia Water Department's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan Update (Green City, Clean Waters Plan)

Complete Document (5.5 MB)

Consent Order and Agreement
Appendix A - Please contact PA DEP for more information
Appendix B - National CSO Policy
Appendix C - Pennsylvania CSO Policy
Appendix D - PWD's October 28, 2010 letter to DEP
Appendix E - Supplemental Documentation in support of the City of Philadelphia's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan Update, April 2011
Appendix F - Example of a dry-weather discharge report, such as is typically provided with the periodic CSO Status Reports
Appendix G - Short descriptions of Deliverables listed in Paragraph 3.a
Appendix H - DEP Approval Letter
Appendix I - 2012 NPDES Permits - Part C Addendum; Water Quality Requirements section of NPDES Permits, or WQBEL