Working together, let's restore the Wissahickon

By Dennis Miranda

Most Philadelphia-area residents probably give little thought to the historic waterway to their north that feeds into Fairmount Park and the Schuylkill, or to its connection to the clean drinking water coming out of their faucets.

But the city has just entered a partnership to restore this very important waterway, the Wissahickon Creek, and Montgomery County's other municipalities in the watershed should follow suit.

The Wissahickon Valley is home to almost a quarter of a million people. In this highly developed area, water running off roofs, driveways, lawns, and parking lots picks up contaminants and washes them into local waterways.

Observations and water tests by our creek watchers - which go back 50 years - combined with data from the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency make it clear: The Wissahickon is in critical condition. Decades of poorly planned development, loss of wetland and riparian corridors, population growth, and polluted runoff have left the creek with pollution levels that far exceed federal Clean Water Act standards.

This not only threatens an important source of drinking water, but it also causes damaging stream bank erosion and flash floods, harms fish and other wildlife, and endangers valuable public recreation areas.

The Wissahickon Creek is too impaired and dangerous for swimming. Excess pollutants in the water cause toxic algae blooms, which choke off the oxygen fish and other aquatic life need, poison fisheries, and can harm pets and even people.

Unfortunately, we haven't found an easy - or cheap - way to undo decades' worth of damage. So despite having this beautiful natural resource in our backyards, we cannot truly enjoy it.

However, we may have found a starting point. Pennsylvania watershed towns and sewer authorities now have an unprecedented opportunity to work together to develop our own solutions to restore the Wissahickon Creek.

A new, voluntary partnership of towns and sewer authorities is committed to working with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to address unhealthy water quality. Right now, our organization is visiting all 16 municipalities in the watershed and the four sewer authorities, and asking them to participate in the Wissahickon Clean Water Partnership by Friday.

So far, Philadelphia, which gets 10 percent of its drinking water from the creek, has agreed to join this partnership, as have Ambler Borough and Abington, Lower Gwynedd, Upper Gwynedd, Springfield, and Whitpain Townships.

Members of this voluntary partnership would work together to develop a watershed-wide plan to make significant water quality improvements and public investments. The partnership would evaluate the causes of the problems and discuss different approaches to fixing them: potential actions to improve water quality, implementation strategies, water quality monitoring, and a possible timeline.

This partnership is a win-win. Local solutions will come from local residents and be based on what's best for each individual city, township, and sewer authority. The Wissahickon Creek would be protected and healthy for all to enjoy.

We would be hard-pressed to find a resident in our watershed who remembers the Wissahickon Creek as a place where children and families could swim, where everyone could fish, and where development wasn't homing in on its shores. The folks who live and work here want to go back to those bygone days.

Our vision is not easy, and it will not come quickly or cheaply, but working together we can achieve it. Our collective action can move the needle by coming up with solutions that will bring our watershed closer together and improve the quality of life for all our residents.

Restoring this important waterway will benefit those of us living in the suburbs, as well as our friends and families in Philadelphia.

Dennis Miranda is executive director of the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association. dennismiranda@wvwa.org