Topics Sewers & Drainage

Black-and-white image of a creek with people around it and a large building behind it

Dock Creek Sewer in 1849: A report on its condition made to City Councils

CITIZENS’ BUSINESS: 1939-1946

Petition of manufacturers along the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia for a new upstream water supply, 1868

From Creek To Sewer

Aramingo Sewer, view near Hughes & Patterson and Beach Street Bridge, March 15, 1902

Aramingo Canal, Then and Now

State of the Schuylkill River in 1876: Sewage pollution and possible remedies

Drainage and Sewerage Report, 1853

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

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

Down Under!

Dauphin and Sydenham car crash, Jan. 17, 1978

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