As we prepare for the exciting return of public River Programs such as Free Fishing and Free Boating, it’s also time to dust off our water sampling equipment and start collecting weekly water samples once again. As you’re reading this, you might be wondering, “Wait, Bartram’s monitors water quality?” Since 2018, our staff, interns, and volunteers have been conducting weekly sampling of the river water at our public dock to assess E.coli bacterial levels and other parameters in the river!

The Tidal Schuylkill is enjoyed by thousands of visitors who participate in free river programs each season at the Bartram’s Garden Community Boathouse. We and our non-human friends, like the 40 species of fish that thrive in the river today, enjoy our river because of the vast improvement in water quality spurred by the closing of coal plants and factories at the end of the 20th century. However, this section of the river still experiences a frequent source of pollution that affects the safety of close contact with the water.

The lower, tidal portion of the Schuylkill River (between Fairmount Dam and Fort Mifflin) is lined with 40 combined sewer outfalls (CSOs) that can discharge untreated municipal sewage and stormwater into the river when it rains. This context cannot be ignored in our efforts to offer free river activities like boating and fishing. The combined sewer system that serves much of Philadelphia is designed to handle both wastewater and stormwater in the same pipe, but when there’s heavy rainfall or snowmelt, the sewer pipes or treatment plants may not be able to handle the increased flow. In such cases, the EPA allows Philadelphia, along with other cities with combined sewer systems, to discharge excess wastewater into nearby water bodies to prevent safety issues caused by flooding.^[1] The Philadelphia Water Department provides online tools called Philly RiverCast and CSOcast, to help us know if the water is safe for recreational activities. However, Philly RiverCast is based on conditions in the Schuylkill above Fairmount Dam, outside the influence of the CSOs we deal with on the lower portion of the river, where Bartram’s Garden is located.^[2]

Our water sampling efforts supplement the data that the Water Department collects and are also specific to our little stretch of the Schuylkill River. This is an essential part of our commitment to ensuring the health and safety of our community. We focus our sampling efforts on E.coli bacteria levels because this is the specific bacteria that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) use to define water quality standards for activities such as boating. We also host an EnviroDIY Mayfly monitoring station in the river near our dock that measures and records physical and chemical properties of the water. Sampling the water over time allows us to observe patterns and look out for what environmental factors might correlate with high bacterial counts. We’ve learned that bacteria levels are variable, meaning they are affected by so many factors that we cannot predict them based on one thing.

However, the data collected over time combined with rainfall records have informed our protocol of canceling our Free Saturday Boating program in the event of at least 0.25 inches of rainfall within the previous 24 hours. This means that even on a beautiful, sunny Saturday, we sometimes have to cancel due to rain on Friday. On the day of a scheduled program, you can always check the calendar at bartramsgarden.org or look on our Facebook or Instagram page for cancellation announcements, which are posted at least two hours before the start time, or call the Welcome Center at (215) 729-5281.

In addition to evaluating our own policies, we also advocate for the Department of Environmental Protection to collect more water quality data and reassess recreational use assessments of the Schuylkill River. We look forward to a future where we’ll be talking about the huge improvements in water quality as a result of City investment in traditional and green infrastructure and CSO reductions.

You can learn more about our water quality monitoring and advocacy here! 

^[1] Recreation in Philadelphia’s Waterways: What to Know – Philadelphia Water Department

^[2]  Philly RiverCast

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As part of our efforts to offer free river activities like boating and fishing, Valerie, Ammarava, and the rest of the river program team carefully monitor the water quality in the Tidal Schuylkill River to ensure that river conditions are safe for recreation. Our data about bacterial and nutrient levels in the river, combined with records about recent rainfall, helps inform our safety practices for public recreation like boating. We also share our findings to advocate for improved protections of the river’s health and water quality.

And though the Schuylkill River’s health has improved dramatically in recent decades, unfortunately, our team still regularly cancels recreational programs owing to unsafe conditions caused by overflows of the city’s combined sewer system, which can introduce sewage and other pollutants into the river after significant rainfall or because of wastewater coming from suburban or industrial origins. Speaking alongside experts from PennEnvironment and regional elected officials, Valerie and Ammarava shared the impact these overflows can have on our free river recreation programs as well as how we use our water quality monitoring to keep visitors and staff safe. Read more in coverage from KYW News Radio and the Philadelphia Inquirer, or check out our data yourself to learn more about the health of the river.

Above: Ammarava sharing details of how the Garden’s water quality monitoring programs keep visitors and staff safe during river recreation on the Tidal Schuylkill River. Photo courtesy Alexandra Venth.

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In the days of the Clean Water Act, the Lower Schuylkill River was a hub of industry and development. Many point sources of pollution have since been shut down or heavily regulated, but the image of a polluted and inhospitable river are still pervasive throughout Philadelphia. Bartram’s Garden, a 45-acre National Historic Landmark, is challenging these negative perceptions by engaging thousands of visitors per season in free recreation and river science programs.

River programs at Bartram’s Garden are centered around the Community Boathouse, which opened in 2015. April through October, the Garden offers Saturday free boating, last Wednesday free fishing, moon row-boating and more. “The Boathouse first came about because our River Programs Manager, Danielle Redden, partnered with the Garden for a community River Fest that offered free boat rides,” says Chloe Wang, River Programs Coordinator at Bartram’s Garden. “Hundreds of people lined up, and many were from the local neighborhood. There was clear demand when the opportunity was offered, which highlighted the need to address barriers to physical access.” The program’s success has been indisputable, demonstrated by thousands of participants and hundreds of volunteers willing to donate their time for the sake of public access.

While conditions and water quality of the Lower Schuylkill have improved dramatically in the last few decades, there is one persistent source of pollution: combined sewer overflows (CSOs). “We have 40 combined sewer outfalls on our section of the river, which is tidal so it flows both ways,” says Chloe. “This is a frequent reason that we cancel programming because we cancel our Saturday program within 24 hours of rainfall.” There is currently very little agency- or research institution-led monitoring of the Lower Schuylkill River, where Bartram’s Garden runs one of the few public docks. To address the lack of monitoring and consequent lack of action by agencies to address the persistent CSOs, Bartram’s Garden decided to start collecting their own data with volunteers and high school students whose love for the river had grown through their involvement in existing education and recreation programs.

Joanne Douglas has been working with Bartram’s Garden since 2017. As the Watershed Interpretation & Youth River Programs Manager, Joanne works to create inclusive student programs that often serve as participants’ first introduction to conservation and environmental justice as a career path. “Many of the students we work with live along the river in Philadelphia and are from communities that will be impacted by climate change immediately,” says Joanne. “They are also, of course, younger and not able to vote or get as engaged politically in ways that adults can.”

In August of 2019, Joanne and Chloe engaged Alice Baker (formerly of PennFuture) and Gayle Killam (formerly of River Network) to consult on a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the Delaware River Basin Commission. This launched a multi-step collaboration among staff, students, and volunteers to secure greater protections for the beloved Lower Schuylkill River. “Alice and Gayle offered training to me and Joanne to help us understand the landscape of water policy for our specific context, which was really illuminating and changed the way that I understand the river and the structures that govern it,” says Chloe. Joanne agrees, stating that “the collaboration was so important because [Gayle and Alice] know policy and what agencies to go to in order to make change, which would have taken hours to figure out on our own.”

Chloe managed the volunteer writing and data collection process, while Joanne worked with the students over multiple workshops to write their portion of the letter. “The students chose to do the introduction and talk about the youth program and make the asks,” explains Joanne. “It was a funny time! One student suggested that we start the letter with a compliment because that’s what he does when he asks his dad for money.” Joanne led these student workshops with openness, listened to students’ ideas and guided the writing process toward the final version. The synthesized letter compels the reader to protect the Lower, tidal, Schuylkill on behalf of the students, volunteers, and program participants who now have access to recreational activities on the river.

“Our boating program is a free community activity on Saturdays where anyone can come and spend the day on the river. We prioritize being inclusive of all, regardless of age, experience, or ability. Our River Crew of young adults practice rowing boats and teach young kids, adults and families to row. Because we serve such a wide range of participants, from very young children to older adults whose immune systems may be weaker, the risk of health impacts from impaired water quality is of primary concern.”

Read the full letter from Bartram’s Garden to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

River Network is thrilled at the outcome of this partnership with Bartram’s Garden and PennFuture. Through this letter-writing process, the staff at Bartram’s Garden effectively trained and empowered students and volunteers to demand greater protections from their local agencies. When asked about goals and next steps for this novel student- and volunteer-driven advocacy project, both Joanne and Chloe expressed great pride in seeing participants take an active role in protecting their local watershed. In the future, Joanne would like to see “returning students who eventually go off on their own and [continue to] engage civically.” Chloe describes this project as “an experiment in making knowledge production more democratic.” Like Joanne and Chloe, we are excited to watch this program expand as it continues to provide river access to Philadelphians and empower communities to expect more from their governing agencies.

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Observant visitors to Bartram’s Garden who meander down to the riverfront will notice a rock face etched with carvings. While most of the marks are modern, there are several historical etchings worth pointing out: closer to ground (above three feet above it) are several marks recording tidal high points of the Schuylkill River: “TIDE 1784,” “TIDE 17— [last 2 digits eroded away],” and “TIDE IN 1850.”

These markings (the author of which is unknown) were likely intended to identify exceptionally high tide levels, and they tell us (even today) that it takes an extraordinary amount of water to raise the lower Schuylkill level any degree. Most likely these floods were either in the spring-thaw period—perhaps March—or in late summer during tropical storms. Tropical storms seem more likely, as a tidal surge up the Delaware Bay will also raise the water level of the lower Schuylkill.

Says Bartram’s Garden curator Joel Fry: “I’ve never seen a storm here create flooding that reaches any of these marks, but  within the last five years, there have been a couple of storms where the lower ground along the river did flood. The water was either just beneath the boardwalk area there, almost reaching the rock face, or one storm the water was actually just over the top of the boardwalk. Because of the great width of the lower Schuylkill valley, it takes a great deal of water to raise much of a flood—and most of South Philadelphia (which would flood almost entirely before the water got very high here) on the east bank is lower than our west bank.”

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