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.

Norman Lofton inspects sewer at Ditman and Sheffield, 1987

Inspector looking for problems in sewer

Sewer crawler Tom Cross, heading down the manhole at 26th and Grays Ferry, 1982

General view of sewer looking up manhole as other Water Dept. personnel look down.

Joe Cerrone, Inspector, Industrial Waste Unit, PWD, enters storm drain to search for source of oil spill, 1989

Sewer worker Anthony Holston enters sewer, 1990

Black and white photo of a worker with darker skin, wearing protective clothing, gloves, and a hard hat with the number 25 on the front, reaching up out of a sewer manhole, only head, shoulders, and left arm visible.

Manholes like this give access to city’s sewer system, 1961

Black and white photo of a worker with darker skin, wearing protective clothing, gloves, and a hard hat with the number 25 on the front, reaching up out of a sewer manhole, only head, shoulders, and left arm visible.

Sewer Inspections: Vintage Images

Bill for Privy Cleaning, 1869

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 photo of industrial tank installation with smokestacks and factories in the background

Emscher Tank Installation at Essen Nord, Germany

Black-and-white image showing several cubic measurements of various types

Volume of Sludge from 1,000,000 Gallons of Sewage