Topics Streams & Rivers

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!

Imagine a Day Without Water

Birkinbine Schuylkill Hydrographical Survey 1861-66

Two reports on the state of the Schuylkill River, 1867

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: 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

69th St. Sewer and Culvert across Lansdowne

69th St. Sewer and Culvert across Lansdowne AVe.

Duplex Pumping Engine, Belmont Works

Duplex Pumping Engine, Belmont Works