Water Center Projects

The water quality in the Delaware River is considered suitable for swimming, except for a 27 mile stretch between Philadelphia, Camden, and Chester. This project will assemble and analyze existing data outlining current conditions and limiting factors to achieving a “swimmable” water quality, in coordination with key stakeholders including the Delaware River Basin Commission, Utilities, Environmental and Recreational Stakeholders, Regulatory Agencies, and others.  The Water Center and its partners will evaluate expected results of planned investments with the goal of predicting when and where… Read More

The Region 3 Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) program is offering direct support to municipalities, tribes, and water utilities in US EPA Region 3 to help them access federal and state funding to address water infrastructure needs. This assistance will be delivered over the coming five years at no cost to recipients, through an award from the US Environmental Protection Agency.  Assistance is available on a need basis, with priority given to historically underserved and disadvantaged communities.  Available services include assistance identifying water challenges; developing plans;… Read More

Recognizing the need to build trust within the West Philadelphia community, our project vision is to promote equitable education opportunities via access to the creek and state-of-the-art, “Ivy league”-level facilities adjacent to Cobbs Creek within the existing Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Center (CCCEC). We intend for the facilities to be used by local West Philadelphia students and Penn students to collaborate and co-learn via STEM curricula with a focus on environmental health and environmental justice (EJ). In addition to generating STEM opportunities for students, our intention… Read More

The Water Center at Penn is conducting research on generally available PFAS/PFOA health literature and corresponding outreach communications to assess how public health concerns regarding PFAS/PFOA are messaged, and how accurately the communications are relayed.  Activities will include a synthesis of generally available PFAS/PFOA health literature, and a robust desktop analysis of the methods and modes of communication for the aforementioned literature review. Task Description The Penn Water Center will investigate how health concerns related to the presence of PFAS/PFOA in a water system… Read More

Conference exploring innovative regional solutions designed to encourage new stormwater utilities and novel approaches for bringing new financial resources to bear in the protection and restoration of our waterways.