Topics Sewers & Drainage

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

Wheeled robotic sewer crawler in sewer pipe

Still photo from a video sewer inspection, 2000

Norman Lofton inspects sewer at Ditman and Sheffield, 1987

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 brick sewer outlet that drains into a creek with trees and a hill behind it

Thomas Run sewer outlet at Cobbs Creek

International Exhibition situation plan, 1876

Centennial Exhibition situation plan, 1876

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998

Captain Sewer and Michael Nutter, 1998