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Relational Possibilities: A Remix of Aesthetic Forms Through Indigeneity and Blackness

Go Back to the River

Water is life.
We need it to grow.
We need it to wash.
We need it to drink.
We need it to pray.
We need it to nourish.
We need it to live.

Philadelphia’s drinking water comes from three major treatment plants. The largest plan (Baxter - Northwest Philly) drinks from the Delaware River. Two plants (Belmont - Wynnefield and Queen Lane - East Falls) drink from the Schuylkill River. There are 164 outfalls between the rivers where combined sewer overflows (definition: rainfall overwhelms the sewer system and stormwater/raw sewage flow untreated into a waterway) discharge.[16]

Since the late 1700s, the rivers have been polluted with waste, sewage, and chemicals produced by human and animals, mining, farming, and manufacturing. [9] One of Philadelphia’s biggest water threats today is combined sewer overflows.

According to PennEnvironment:

the Philadelphia Water Department’s data between 2010 - 2022 shows that combined sewer overflows “dump an average of 15 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with polluted stormwater per year into local waterways.” [16]
the Philadelphia Water Department removes 44 tons of trash (56% of this is plastic waste) each year from a 32 mile stretch of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers within its city borders.[2]
a 2022 PennEnvironment/Drexel University research study that tested for the presence of microplastics in 50 of the “cleanest streams and waterways” in the state of Pennsylvania found microplastic pollution in all samples.[3] Microplastics hurt the land, people, plants, and animals. [1] [4] [5] [6]

Most recently, in late March 2023 an estimated 8,000 gallons of a water-based latex finishing solution leaked from the Trinseo Altuglas chemical facility in Bucks County into the Delaware River tributary. An intake pipe for Philadelphia’s largest drinking water treatment plant (the Baxter Water Treatment facility) was 13 miles downstream. While the plant was able to temporarily close the valves for a few days, the city’s infrastructure demanded they open it (e.g. to supply water for firefighting).[7]

Without water we can not live.
We can not grow.
We can not wash.
We can not drink.
We can not pray.
We can not feed ourselves.
We die.

SOURCES

[1] https://schuylkillriver.org/microplastics/
[2] https://environmentamerica.org/pennsylvania/resources/microplastics-in-pennsylvania/
[3] “Microplastics are everywhere, even in Pennsylvania's cleanest waterways” https://www.wesa.fm/environment-energy/2022-11-04/microplastics-are-everywhere-even-in-pennsylvanias-cleanest-waterways
[4] Lee Y, Cho J, Sohn J, Kim C. Health Effects of Microplastic Exposures: Current Issues and Perspectives in South Korea. Yonsei Med J. 2023 May;64(5):301-308. doi: 10.3349/ymj.2023.0048. PMID: 37114632; PMCID: PMC10151227.
[5] Campanale C, Massarelli C, Savino I, Locaputo V, Uricchio VF. A Detailed Review Study on Potential Effects of Microplastics and Additives of Concern on Human Health. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 13;17(4):1212. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041212. PMID: 32069998; PMCID: PMC7068600.
[6] “ Microplastics are in our bodies: how much do they harm us?”, National Geographic, May 8, 2023, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/microplastics-are-in-our-bodies-how-much-do-they-harm-us
[7]Schmidt, S. “During a Chemical Spill, Philly Was Unable to Switch Water Sources. Here’s Why That Matters.” Plan Philly, March 30, 2023, https://whyy.org/articles/philadelphia-drinking-water-vulnerability-contamination-safety/
[8] Crimmins, P. “Exhibition Traces a 200-Year History of Water Pollution in Philadelphia.” WHYY, September 11, 2021, https://whyy.org/articles/exhibition-traces-a-200-year-history-of-water-pollution-in-philadelphia/
[9] “Downstream,” Science History Institute Museum & Library, accessed September 20, 2023,
[10] “History,” Fairmount Water Works, accessed September 20, 2023, https://fairmountwaterworks.org/about/history/
[11] History.com Editors, “Philadelphia,” History.com, March 8, 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/philadelphia-pennsylvania
[12] Bate, D. “Reviving the River: The Death of the Delaware River,” WHYY, January 15, 2019, https://whyy.org/articles/the-death-of-the-delaware-river/
[13] Phillips, S. “Reviving the River: How the Clean Water Act Fixed the Delaware River’s Pollution Problem,” WHYY, October 18, 2022, https://whyy.org/articles/how-the-clean-water-act-fixed-the-delaware-rivers-pollution-problem
[14] “Green City Clean Waters,” Philadelphia Water Department, accessed September 1, 2023, https://water.phila.gov/green-city/
[15] “Water: An Environmental Crisis in 19th Century Philadelphia,” Historical Society of Philadelphia, accessed September 21, 2023, https://www.portal.hsp.org/unit-plan-items/unit-plan-66
[16] Rumpler, J. Sewage Pollution in Philadelphia (PennEnvironment, 2023), available at https://environmentamerica.org/pennsylvania/center/resources/15-billion-gallons-of-raw-sewage-enter-philadelphias-rivers-streams-each-year/

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The Impacts of Sewage Polluted Water AI generated image of an abandoned empty city in an arid environment next to a dried up river bed with a quote on the sewage pollution in Philadelphia from the eponymous 2023 report by PennEnvironment, a local environmental advocacy group. Text on the image reads: “Bacteria, parasites and viruses in sewage can cause lung and intestinal infections; diarrhea, cramps, vomiting and loss of appetite; fever, headache and weakness; worsened allergies; and other illnesses…Needless to say, raw sewage and polluted stormwater are also harmful to the ecology of our rivers and streams – subjecting fish and wildlife to harmful algal outbreaks, a lack of oxygen and toxic substances."
Go Back to the River Cover Art
The Polluted Skuylkill River An image of the polluted brown Schuylkill River in Philadelphia with Center City (neighborhood) in the background dated August 1973 overlaid with the screenshots of a March 2023 “The Philadelphia Inquiry” news article about sewage dumping in Philadelphia’s rivers (top left) and text from the 2010 Philadelphia Water Department’s annual report on water quality (bottom right). The phrase “H20 is life” overlays the river image. Images of Philadelphia public artworks (“AIDS Southwest”, “A Celebration of Poetry,” and “All Power to All People”) overlay the phrase “H20” (water). AI generated images showing water screens overlay the words “is life.”