A group of 20 had an educational 2-hour tour of trash in and around Tacony Creek Park and Tacony Creek on Tuesday, March 11, 2014. The planned tour route is shown below:
Because of time considerations, we stopped at point 8, just below Roosevelt Blvd.
The tour briefing pdf is available here.
Philadelphia is not the only metropolitan area with creek trash problems, the Anacostia River in Maryland and Washington DC also has a serious creek trash problem.
The Anacostia Watershed Society and the DC Department of the Environment have conducted a number of studies of creek trash, including a very interesting study of the Nash Run (link).
The project investigator, Masaya Maeda, measured the trash collected in a custom built trash trap each month between March, 2009 and September, 2010. He found an interesting relationship between the hours per month of intense rainfall (>= 0.3 inches/hr) and quantity of trash captured by the trap.
This chart summarizes the Nash Run trash data, hours of 0.3 or more inches per hour precipitation in each month versus the quantity of trash collected.
Take a close look at the Aug, 2010 data point, it looks like an outlier. It turns out that there was a 0.5 inches/hour, a pretty intense storm that partially explains the specific situation in that month.
As Maeda reports “.. it is observed that the rainfall intensity larger than 0.3 inches/hour may be a tipping point to carry trash pieces into a nearby stream.” (pg 5- 7)
This Anacostia Watershed Society observation may be an important factor in Philadelphia Water Department’s Green City, Clean Waters Program (GC,CW). The GC,CW program is focused on the frequent 1 inch or less storm events. This may not be helpful in controlling trash carried to Philadelphia creeks during the high intensity storms that may be carrying most street litter to Philadelphia creeks.
Here is a plot of the number of hours per year between 1950 to 2013 when the rainfall rate was greater than or equal to 0.3 inches/hour at Philadelphia International Airport.
The number of hours of rain intensity >= 0.3 inches per hour ranges from a low of 7 to a high of 49 hours per year. If we look at the trend for intensities over 1 inch per hour, there seems to be a rising trend.
PWD has not conducted this type of detailed trash load by rainfall event study so we don’t have comparable rainfall intensity – trash load data for Philadelphia. We do know that we have significant trash loads in the Tookany Tacony Creek and we can see that the frequency of very intense rain storms ( >= 1 inch per hour) is increasing. We clearly need a street litter – creek trash study like those conducted by the Washington DC and the Anacostia Watershed Society to understand and address Philadelphia’s creek trash problem.
To understand the reasons behind why PWD outfalls discharge so much trash to the Tookany – Tacony Creek we need to examine PWD’s floatables control program.
PWD’s Floatables Control Program
Philadelphia has used trapped inlets since the late 1800’s to prevent floatables from entering the sewer system. With 100% inlet trapping and regular inlet cleaning, PWD has done a good job controlling floatables from both MS4 and CSO outfalls. PWD also uses vessels in the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers to collect floating debris.
PWD’s historic approach to floatables control is simply not adequate for current conditions in the Tookany – Tacony Creek. Plastic bags and food wrappers have neutral buoyancy so that they do not necessarily get trapped in the inlet, rather some of this material flows to the sewer where a significant portion of CSO and 100% of MS4 litter is discharged to the creek. In a small creek like the Tookany – Tacony much of it gets caught on rocks and branches, the rest flows downstream to the Delaware River and out to the Bay and Ocean as marine debris.
PWD conducted a 10 year study of outfall netting at T-04. Unfortunately, PWD did not examine the content of the netted debris, rather PWD relied on visual observation. PWD concluded that the majority of the net debris was natural organic material, leaves, and concluded that it was not necessary to upgrade the City’s floatables control program.
The Anacostia Watershed Society conducted a 1 year netting study and found that 10% of their debris was man-made products, like plastic bags and food wrappers. Washington DC and the Maryland Counties are taking aggressive steps to control their stormwater outfall trash discharges because they recognized the importance of controlling plastic bags, food wrappers and other trash that can pass through trapped stormwater inlets.
Marine Debris
My work to date has focused on documenting trash in the creek bet and along the banks of the Tookany – Tacony Creek. I can not quantify what portion of PWD’s outfall trash discharge is retained in the creek and what portion passes through the creek to the Delaware River, Bay and Ocean. I suspect that a significant portion of TTF Watershed street litter winds up as marine debris.
A recent UK study on marine debris in the Thames Estuary sheds some light on the fate of street litter. UK scientists placed eel fyke nets at the bottom of the Thames at 7 locations for 3 months. 8,400 pieces of litter were trapped in the 7 nets over a 3 month period from Sept. to December, 2012. Here are 2 quotes from the study authors..
“The waste collected for the study is only a small snapshot of the volume of litter that may exist at the bottom of the Thames.”
“Plastic bags and other large items are unlikely to get caught in the small nets, so the true extent of the problem is still unknown, the researchers said.” ENS, 1/2/14
We have a great deal to learn about green stormwater. My Tookany – Tacony Creek trash surveys demonstrate that PWD discharges large quantities of street litter to the Tookany – Tacony Creek. The Thames study shows that some of this litter will make its way to the Delaware where it will move along the River – Bay bottom and pose a threat to aquatic life.
Philadelphia’s street litter is a significant water pollution problem that needs to be addressed for protection of the small Tookany – Tacony Creek, the Delaware River and Bay as well as the Atlantic Ocean.
Philadelphia has plenty of street litter. Here’s an example of litter near a PWD stormwater inlet.
This litter will flow into the stormwater inlet. Some of it will pass through the inlet trap and enter PWD’s combined sewer system.
How much of it will overflow through PWD’s T-03 CSO outfall? Of the portion that overflows to Tacony Creek, how much will get trapped in Tacony – Frankford Creek and how much will flow into the Delaware River?
Unfortunately PWD, PaDEP, DRBC and EPA do not know.
We can always learns from others. Let’s take a look at recent research from the Thames River in the UK. Here’s the headline from a recent Environment News Service article on plastic pollution at the bottom of the Thames River.
(Click the image to go to article)
UK scientists placed eel fyke nets at the bottom of the Thames at 7 locations. 8,400 pieces of litter were trapped in the 7 nets over a 3 month period from Sept. to December, 2012.
Eel Fyke Nets used to trap plastic along Thames river bed
“The waste collected for the study is only a small snapshot of the volume of litter that may exist at the bottom of the Thames.
Plastic bags and other large items are unlikely to get caught in the small nets, so the true extent of the problem is still unknown, the researchers said.” ENS, 1/2/14
We have a great deal to learn about green stormwater. My Tookany – Tacony Creek trash surveys demonstrate that PWD discharges large quantities of street litter to the Tookany – Tacony Creek. The Thames study shows that this some of this litter will make its way to the Delaware where it will move along the River – Bay bottom and pose a threat to aquatic life.
Posted in Phila Trash
Tagged Green City Clean Waters, Philadelphia litter, Philadelphia storm water
This photo of creek trash in Cheltenham’s Rock Creek, a small tributary to the Tookany – Tacony Creek, shows why we need to do a better job controlling street litter.
This photo was taken on 12/28/13 along Rock Creek, just downstream of Ogontz Ave (Route 309). The structure in the upper left of the photo is the conduit under Ogontz Ave. Philadelphia’s T-01 combined sewer outfall discharges into this conduit.
The plastic bags and other creek trash litter is from Philadelphia street litter and Cheltenham shopping parking lot litter carried to Rock Creek by stormwater runoff through storm sewers and by overland flow.
You can see a dynamic photo survey of Rock Creek at this link.
2nd, there is a new tool to help document the creek trash conditions in the Tookany – Tacony Creek, Photosynth 2 from Microsoft.
I’ve developed a series of photo trash surveys of Rock Creek using this new software. Please take a look, I think you will be surprised how well the creek trash shows up in the 3D like images.
Rock Creek is a beautiful creek so I have included some “nice” segments along with the litter filled segments.
You can control Photosynth by clicking the icon in lower right of screen: to stop – start movement. 
Once you have stopped image movement, you can manually advance through images by holding mouse left button down and moving mouse up or down to move through the scene. You can zoom and pan on a specific location by using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
Here is a image of trash build-up just downstream of PWD’s T-01 outfall.
I plan to document all creek trash hotspots with Photosynth in the next few months. It turns out that winter is the best time to photograph creek trash because most vegetation has died back, exposing the trash.
Microsoft has released a new version of Photosynth that significantly improves photo documentation of creek trash. I took my digital camera to Rock Creek, a small tributary of the Tookany – Tacony Creek to see how if Photosynth can be used to document creek trash in small creeks. The answer is YES!.
Here are links to several Rock Creek Photosynths that show the power of this tool in documenting creek conditions.
Photosynth’s Walk mode lets you “glide” from photo to photo along the creek as if you were flying. You can stop the auto advance and move forward – reverse at your own pace.You can zoom and pan to see the creek litter or others of interest. This tool takes litter photography to a whole new level.
Rock Creek Below PWD’s T-01 Outfall by KellyOday on Photosynth
Example of Rock Creek Trash Captured in 3D with Photosynth
What is it about the Tookany – Tacony Creek that causes the creek litter in the Tacony to be so much worse than it is in the Wissahickon or Pennypack Creeks? Excessive street litter by Philadelphia residents, inadequate street cleaning by the Streets Department, inadequate floatables control by PWD are similar through out the entire City.
PWD’s Tookany – Tacony Creek Sewer System Configuration
The way PWD’s Tookany – Tacony Creek sewer system is configured causes large quantities of littered stormwater to be discharged at just a few outfalls along the Creek rather than many points along the tributaries to the Creek. This stormwater consolidation to just a few outfalls causes an excessive litter load to be dumped at a few points. The result is an unsanitary, unsightly situation that is unfair to the Tookany – Tacony Creek neighbors who happen to live near the PWD outfall or visit the Tacony Creek Park in the Friends Hospital area.
Let’s take a look at the location of PWD’s Tookany – Tacony Creek outfalls and the results of my creek trash photo surveys in the map below:
(Click image to enlarge)
There is a relationship between the PWD outfalls and the Tookany – Tacony Creek segments with excessive creek trash conditions, with 3 segments having the worst conditions:
Let’s take a look at the drainage areas for the 3 outfalls (T-01, T-088-01, T-08) with the worst downstream creek trash condition:
(Click image to enlarge)
T-01′s drainage area is approximately 260 acres discharging into the very small Rock Creek at one point just south of Route 309 (Ogontz Ave).
T-088-01′s drainage area is approximately 450 acres discharging into the very small Mill Run creek at one point, just east Cheltenham Ave
T-08′s drainage area is approximately 1,950 acres discharging into Tacony Creek, just north of Roosevelt Blvd. While the Tacony Creek is larger than the Rock Creek and Mill Run segments, the discharge of littered PWD stormwater from such a large area is a major cause of the creek trash problem visible from Roosevelt Blvd to Friends Hospital.
The configuration of PWD’s sewer system contributes to the Tookany – Tacony Creek Trash problem because it carries littered stormwater flow from large areas to single points discharges along the Creek where the litter is caught along the rough banks and vegetation.
PWD’s Green City, Clean Water’s program will help but will not completely solve the Tacony Creek trash problem. Tookany – Tacony Creek residents and Tacony Creek Park visitors need a Tookany – Tacony Creek Trash Plan tailored to the specific issues in Tookany – Tacony Creek.
Some of our plastic street litter makes its way to the Atlantic ocean. How much? We don’t know, but we do know that plastic will last for an incredibly long time in the environment.
This video shows how plastic debris in the Pacific Ocean makes its way to Midway Island. It shows how thoughtless use and disposal of plastic litter is killing birds and fish.
(Click image to start video)
Street litter is just the first step in the life of plastic litter. That piece of plastic can be fatal to an unsuspecting bird or fish. Litter can kill!!
Posted in Phila Trash, Plastic Pollution, TTF Watershed
Visit this page to see documentation on TTf Creek trash problem.
