Petition Launched To Protect Wissahickon, Local Drinking Water

A petition has launched online to offer support for a clean and healthy Wissahickon Creek.

The Wissahickon Creek is one of the most significant tributaries of the Schuylkill River. It dumps into the Schuylkill within Philadelphia city limits, in the Manayunk and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods.

It runs through a valley that can be very steep (uncharacteristically so for this region) on either side. Although preserved as a city or county on both of its banks for almost its entire length, the Wissahickon nonetheless cannot avoid falling victim to significant and continuing development on the ridges above the valley.

About 68 percent of the water in the creek is comprised of runoff due to erosion from development along the ridges and from municipal wastewater plants, according to recent estimates. Were it healthy, the Wissahickon would contain only about 30 percent runoff , the Wissahickon Valley Watershed said.

Specifically, development leads to an abundance of impervious cover, or places which cannot absorb rainfall.

That leads to a disproportionate amount draining down into the creek, especially where the valley is steepest.

In the most densely populated areas, that runoff contains high quantities of chemicals from human inputs like fertilizers.

An obvious impact of this is eutrophication, or the water becoming "over-nutrified" with things like phosphorous and nitrogen.

One of the most significant issues this raises is how comprehensive urban and suburban stream management must be to control human input into the ecosystem. Even though the stream is already formally "protected," even though there are already significant restrictions on wastewater disposal, there is so much development and corresponding runoff, and so much wastewater, that the creek is still over-nutrified.

There are also countless tiny tributaries to the Wissahickon itself, and these are often outside of the protected area. Much of the damage to the creek was also done in the mid-20th century while development flourished but before restrictions were put in place.

The petition, which has 278 signees as of Tuesday, also proposes support for an alternative management plan of the Wissaahickon.

Image via angler Wayne Heinze.