East Falls Stormwater Blog is ALIVE!

INTRODUCTION

The City of Philadelphia has declared its intentions to become the greenest and most sustainable city in the United States. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Philadelphia Green (PHS) program is working in support of that goal on many fronts, including innovative stormwater management projects, particularly projects related to Green Streets. Funded by a grant from the William Penn Foundation, PHS is partnering with the East Falls Development Corporation (EFDC), Philadelphia University, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and several City agencies to create a comprehensive neighborhood approach to managing stormwater. PHS is managing one aspect of the program: development of site specific designs to capture and reduce runoff from Midvale Avenue - runoff that would otherwise discharge directly into the Schuylkill River. Midvale Avenue is a major transit and commercial corridor that provides exciting opportunities and significant design challenges for establishing alternative stormwater management practices within the public right-of-way.

PHS has proposed an innovative approach to design development for East Falls projects, based on site investigations and community engagement undertaken 2006 – 2007, and described in the final report, East Falls Neighborhood Model Stormwater ftp://ftp.pennsylvaniahorticulturalsociety.com/PR/PhiladelphiaGreen/eastfalls.pdf . Given that design guidelines, permitting and approvals, maintenance, and operation will involve multiple agencies and support from local residents and businesses, PHS and EFDC will organize the design process to include a broad range of technical expertise, government regulators, policy makers and stakeholders. The goal is to have fully engaged participation at every level of intersection between the physical projects, a broad variety of stakeholders, end-users and eventual caretakers.