Philadelphians were alerted last month to possible industrial pollutants spilling over the Bartram’s Mile Trail at Bartram’s Garden. Authorities have assured everyone that there are few to no environmental or health impacts, but lingering concerns about their response remain. It should be noted that Bartram’s Garden is fully open and they’ve taken precautions to ensure visitor safety and prevent contact with the nearby pollution discussed in this post.

It was a visitor who eventually alerted local officials and Bartram’s Garden about the situation in July, although the odd green substance, later determined to be chromium, was first seen in April. It is not clear why there was such a reporting delay or why the PA Dept. of Environmental Protection (PADEP) did not notify potentially affected parties about the possibly hazardous liquid.  Once PADEP determined that the substance was not a direct threat to the drinking water supply because the location was well downstream of the drinking water intakes, it was deemed a non-threat overall and no further notifications were warranted. However, although it was not a drinking water issue, and although it is considered low risk to aquatic environments, contact with chromium can pose health concerns.  Chromium is considered a mutagen by the EPA. Some forms of the metal present a cancer risk after prolonged inhalation or ingestion, and acute effects involve skin damage and allergic reactions.  PADEP acknowledged that the recent Bartram’s sampling found 4 of 11 soil samples exceeded their standard.  While, again, there was no hazard to drinking water, we think these potential exposures were serious enough to merit a swifter public notice on the part of PADEP.

PADEP also concluded that although the substance was a potential pollutant and presented an ongoing issue, it did not constitute an environmental violation. Both the Philadelphia Water Department and the Philadelphia Fire Department Hazardous Materials Unit determined there was no contaminated runoff – and it is indeed possible that the ooze was coming from the subsurface. The entire area is underlain by highly porous sand and gravel, so contaminated liquids could move easily through the ground. Still, the trail walker observed some overland flow at this point and there is likely some subsurface contact with river water. In both instances it is safe to say the substance is getting into the river whether it’s a clear regulatory violation or not.

What’s concerning is the lack of regulatory curiosity as to where this green ooze is coming from. Chromium is a byproduct of steel manufacturing and this land area adjacent to Bartram’s Garden has a long history of industrial use, and specifically, steel production. The Ryerson company manufactured steel nearby and was in operation for at least half a century. A 1980 study by the USGS found a tiny percentage of groundwater samples collected in Philadelphia exceeded the EPA standard for chromium and these concentrations were attributed to industrial processes.  While the 1980 USGS study did not find a widespread problem in Philadelphia, another Ryerson steel plant in Oregon was cited by the EPA as a contributor to a Superfund site.  ALL samples taken as part of that environmental study contained chromium.

We believe the likely source of the chromium at Bartram’s Garden is the old steel plant one quarter of a mile away. If that is the source of the chromium, we wonder how widespread this contamination is, and we believe it warrants a broader investigation prior to adaptive reuse at this site. At a minimum, Bartram’s Garden and Southwest Philadelphia residents should be provided detailed information from the state about the risks to park visitors, nearby neighbors, and the general public.

For further information about the incident and conditions on the ground, Bartram’s Garden has an informative webpage.

The post Bartram’s Garden Chemical Contamination appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

The funds awarded to our partner Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC) will spur the assessment and remediation of the riverfront site, which spans slightly less than an acre and is currently contaminated with lead and and semi-volatile organic compounds after decades of industrial use. Once the land has been remediated, plans will advance for major new riverfront developments: the Garden’s new Field Station & Welcome Center, complete with a realignment of the Bartram’s Mile Trail to the newly accessible riverfront, and a portion of PIDC’s Lower Schuylkill Biotech Campus.

Speaking at the event, Executive Director Maitreyi Roy noted, “Safe and clean land opens up opportunities for new businesses, green spaces, and community projects . . . . Our neighborhood will thrive, not just survive. The powerful message is that no community should bear the brunt of environmental degradation and that everyone deserves to live in a safe and healthy environment.”

Learn more about the event and the EPA’s national brownfield remediation program in recent news coverage from the Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY, the Guardian, and Delaware Currents.

The post EPA Awards Remediation Funding for Future Field Station Site appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

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

The post Spotlight on Water Quality Monitoring appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

Winners:

Stephon Mumford caught the first fish of the day at 8:04 AM, and James Giles caught the last, in the final minute of the competition!

The prize for most fish caught went to Gary Thomas, who reeled in a whopping 18 fish! James Giles was the runner-up with 11 fish, followed closely by 4-year-old Nora who brought in 10!

Stephon Mumford won for biggest fish with a 24-inch catfish. Allegedly Ka-Ron Thomas caught an American eel that was “like 3 feet,” which was not measured or photographed, but earned Ka-Ron the prize for weirdest fish. Nafis Zollicoffer and Lucy Mercorella hauled in the next two largest catfish, and Lucy’s was her first ever catch!

The smallest fish, a 3.5-inch emerald shiner, was caught by the smallest angler, August.

It was a beautiful and exciting morning, and heartwarming to see experienced anglers helping first-timers to catch their first fish. We’re grateful to Coach Todd of Mid-Atlantic Youth and Outdoors Partners for coming out to help identify, measure, and release all those fish!

The post 2023 Southwest Fish-Off appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

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.

The post River Staff Featured by PennEnvironment appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

Coming Soon to 56^th Street

Have you heard? A new Ecosystems Education Center and Freshwater Mussel Hatchery will be built at Bartram’s Garden within the next few years.

Native freshwater mussels are not the kinds of mussels that we eat, but each adult mussel can filter up to 20 gallons of water per day while creating a nutrient-rich riverbed to help prevent erosion and support healthy conditions for other plants and animals. Thanks to regulations, scientific research, and dedicated residents throughout the region, rivers like the Schuylkill and the Delaware are now healthy enough to support a range of plants and animals, including native mussels. The new hatchery, led by Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, will raise up to 500,000 mussels per year to be restored throughout our local streams, wetlands, and waterways, where they can then use their natural filtering to help clean the water even further.

The adjacent Ecosystems Education Center will create a new home for hands-on, year-round learning, making, and sharing at Bartram’s Garden thanks to a teaching kitchen and flexible indoor and outdoor classroom spaces.

A collaborative team of local leaders, staff members, and Board members from both organizations selected the Philadelphia-based architecture firm WRT Design to design the new building. These initial renderings were shared at a public Zoom meeting on June 1 and will continue to be refined this year.

Questions or ideas? Contact info@bartramsgarden.org to let us know what you think!

The post “Coming Soon to 56th Street” appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

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.

The post A Letter from Bartram’s Garden to the PA Department of Environmental Protection appeared first on Bartram's Garden.

“Bliss described walking Feb. 22, 1884 from the Blockley Hospital (roughly the modern UPenn hospital complex), down the Darby Road and past Gray’s Ferry. The Episcopal Theological Seminary that Bliss mentions was between 50th and 51st along the east side of Woodland in the 1880s. So the ‘long lane‘ he and his companion ‘V’ [another resident doctor in the hospital] turned down towards the river might very likely have been either the Bartram/Carr/Eastwick entry lane or Hay/Gibson lane (partially preserved in modern Vodges Street).

“Looking across the river, he says he could see the refineries (Point Breeze) and two huge grain elevators (Girard Point), and then across the south Philadelphia marshes to see ships on the Delaware. He then walked back, ‘going down a railroad track towards the City’ – that was probably the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore. The ‘handsome mansion, built in English-manor style‘ on a knoll above the river might then have been the Eastwick house—if he was walking along the railroad bed, Bartram Hall would have been on the right—but that probably means he walked down Hay Lane/Gibson Lane to the river, so below 56th Street. The mansion with windows closed and boarded up, and many places plastering fallen from the walls, sounds like the Eastwick House in 1884.

“Interesting he says there was a large sign facing the railroad ‘which threatened all the law’s penalties upon anyone who ventured within the high, briar-covered stone wall enclosing the estate.’ That very much sounds like the Eastwick estate, and several similar accounts from the 1880s say there were no trespassing signs all over the estate, but people were always sneaking in. Andrew Eastwick died in 1879, so the estate had only been abandoned for five years in 1884—so quite an exaggeration on the decay and neglect.”

“Even when the Bartram Park was opened in 1891, the rest of the surrounding Eastwick estate was fenced off with no trespassing sign to keep people out of the vicinity of the Eastwick mansion.”

———————————————————————-

Top Image: James Fuller Queen (1820/1821–1886) painted Grays Ferry Looking South in 1858 depicting steamboats and barges on the Schuylkill River, with a marsh in the foreground. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

The post Bartram History: A River Walk in 1884 appeared first on Bartram's Garden.