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

Water is Medicine

If we listen, we can explore the stories the water tells to the City of Philadelphia.

We are part of the land.
Protecting our water relations benefits all peoples across the globe.
Water is important to our health - of ourselves, our communities, our environment.

Water is the first medicine, Nokomis told me.
We come from water.
It nourished us inside our mother's body.
As it nourishes us here on Mother Earth.
Water is sacred, she said.
- "We Are Water Protectors," book by award-winning Indigenous authors and artists Carole Lindstrom (author) and Michaela Goade (illustrator) [16] [17]

Sources

[1] History.com Editors, “Philadelphia,” History.com, March 8, 2019, https://www.history.com/topics/us-states/philadelphia-pennsylvania

[2] “History,” Fairmount Water Works, accessed September 20, 2023, https://fairmountwaterworks.org/about/history/

[3] “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

[4] 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/

[5] “Downstream,” Science History Institute Museum & Library, accessed September 20, 2023, https://sciencehistory.org/visit/exhibitions/downstream/

[6] 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

[7] 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/

[8] “Green City Clean Waters,” Philadelphia Water Department, accessed September 1, 2023, https://water.phila.gov/green-city/

[9] “Microplastics,” Philadelphia Water Department, accessed October 5, 2023, https://water.phila.gov/sustainability/watershed-protection/microplastics/

[10] 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.

[11] 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.

[12] “ 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

[13]”Microplastics and the River,” Schuylkill River Greenways National Heritage Area, accessed October 5, 2023, https://schuylkillriver.org/microplastics/

[14] Microplastics in Pennsylvania: A Survey of Waterways Report (PennEnvironment, 2021), https://environmentamerica.org/pennsylvania/resources/microplastics-in-pennsylvania/

[15] Bradley, J. “Microplastics are everywhere, even in Pennsylvania's cleanest waterways,” Lehigh Valley News, November 4, 2022, https://www.wesa.fm/environment-energy/2022-11-04/microplastics-are-everywhere-even-in-pennsylvanias-cleanest-waterways

[16] We Are Water Protectors, Carole Lindstrom (Roaring Brook Press, 2020)

[17] @Ring Around Ronina, “We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom READ ALOUD ~RING AROUND RONINA~,” Youtube Video, July 9, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqWTouyaQ-8

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Across the U.S. the environmental movement began. In 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed the Delaware River Basin Compact, which created a commission between Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Delaware to address river planning and regulations. [4] By 1964 cities like Philadelphia contributed the most wastewater from sewage treatment plants, blood from slaughterhouses, toxic waste from chemical companies like Dupont to the Delaware River. It’s estimated that about a million pounds of waste went into the river daily. Water tests for bacteria counts showed high levels of bacteria and zero dissolved oxygen (i.e. fish and plant life could not survive under these conditions). Caviar and sturgeon fish disappeared from the river. [6]
The Philadelphia Water Department begins to collect data and test for microplastics found in the city’s rivers and streams. [9] Microplastics are pieces of plastic less than 5mm long (i.e. tinier than rice!). Research does not know yet what long-term effects microplastics have on humans. [10] [11] [12] It is already inside us - from the water we drink, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat. [13] [14] Microplastics are in the state of Pennsylvania’s “cleanest waterways.” [15]
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the federal government’s Environmental Protection Agency brought enforcement actions against the City of Philadelphia for violations of the state Clean Streams law and federal Clean Water Act. [7] In response, the City of Philadelphia created Green City, Clean Waters, a 25 year plan to reduce stormwater volume through system repairs and green infrastructure projects (e.g. adding more plants, creating tree trenches on residential blocks to soak up stormwater). According to the City government, old sections of the sewer system in “about 60 percent of the city” overflow in wet weather polluting roads and waterways with stormwater and sewage flow. [6] [8]
PennEnvironment reports that the city’s wastewater system still pours huge volumes of raw sewage and runoff pollution into the two rivers and local creeks for 128 days or more per year. Stormwater and sewage flow through the same pipes towards the same wastewater treatment plants. Several popular water recreation locations along the local rivers and creeks received more frequent than average combined sewer overflows (Bartram’s Garden, Cobbs Creek Park, Tacony Creek Park). [7]