Subjects Sewers & Drainage

Pipes, pumping stations, interceptors or intercepting sewers, outfalls, separate and combined sewers, sewage treatment plants, and any other infrastructure related to the collection and treatment of sewage from homes and businesses.

Dealing with the city’s wastes in the mid-19th century

Three reports on Philadelphia’s Sewage Treatment Project, 1911-1914

Oak Lane Reservoir pipeline, 1904

The Water and Drainage History of Philadelphia: A seven-part course

Down Under!

Black-and-white photograph depicts a large brick sewer tube lying on a barren landscape

Streams, islands, and ferries of early Philadelphia

William Penn balks at drinking the "mixed drink" offered him: Schuylkill water, mixed with pollution from the upstream sources named. Editorial cartoon by Fred Morgan, Philadelphia Inquirer, April 6, 1899. One of a series of cartoons drawn by Morgan protesting the state of the city's drinking water and trying to encourage the passage of legislation authorizing the construction of a water filtration system.

Half a Century of Clean Water: The Clean Water Act, 1972-2022

Black-and-white image of a graph with several captions

Diagram Showing Rate Between Bulk of Wet Sludge and Its Percentage Moisture

Philadelphia Underground, Jan. 29, 1961

“Philadelphia Underground,” Jan. 29, 1961

Sewer Crawlers, Jan. 29, 1961

“Sewer Crawlers,” January 29, 1961

1779 Philadelphia map

1779 Revolutionary War-era map of Philadelphia and environs

Sewage collection and disposal plan

Plan for the Collection, Purification and Disposal of the Sewage of the City of Philadelphia, 1912

Photo of a woman looking at a jar of raw, untreated sewage

Jar of raw sewage before treatment, 2000