---
title: who already works the philadelphia gallons
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/who-already-works-the-philadelphia-gallons
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/who-already-works-the-philadelphia-gallons.md
subtitle: "green city, clean waters keeps the count"
category: ecosystem-services
---

# who already works the philadelphia gallons

*green city, clean waters keeps the count*

Green City, Clean Waters is Philadelphia's 25-year program for combined-sewer overflows. It started in 2011 under a consent order. The water department runs it. Ratepayers fund it. A typical year at the start was 13 billion gallons of overflow to the rivers. By the 2021 regulatory report, a typical year was down 3.08 billion gallons, ahead of a required 2.044 billion. About five billion gallons a year were still to be cut. The completion target is about an eight billion gallon reduction from the original thirteen. Year 15 of the program is 2026.

That is the count. The fall line at Philadelphia — tidal Delaware, Schuylkill, the overflows to both, and Eastwick where the creeks meet a later tide — exists whether or not anyone buys a certificate. The department already works the gallons. These notes do not contain a unit for anything beside that count, so this page does not name a price.

:::johnson
**the department already counts the gallons. these notes do not add a price.**

Green City, Clean Waters is the work. The rivers are the living system the count is trying to spare.
:::

## what the letter actually says

The department's letter of 20 July 2023, updated four days later, is the primary page for the gallons. Use it for the 13 billion, the 3.08 billion, the 2.044 billion, the five billion still ahead, and the eight billion completion target. Projects then under construction were described as another 600 million gallons a year within three years of that letter. The fiscal-year 2024 actual overflow volume was not pulled from the permit file. If you need a 2025 or 2026 gallon, it is not in this series. Year 15 arriving on the calendar does not fill that blank.

The letter also says Philadelphia does not have known actively discharging sanitary sewer overflows, and that dry-weather combined-sewer discharges are infrequent. The volume left is wet weather. The share of the city served by combined sewers was not taken from a department page, so this series does not print one.

Money in the same letter is a $100 million PENNVEST loan for pretreatment at the Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant, and the phrase "multi-billion" for the program. Delaware Currents, on 11 June 2024, reported at least $4.5 billion at the halfway mark, at least $2 billion over original estimates, from public records and department employees. That figure is the article's. It is not a line in the July 2023 letter. Both stand. Per-greened-acre dollars in the article were not used, because this series will not launder a price the notes refused.

A resident meets the program as a greened acre on a block: a tree trench, a bumpout, a planted strip that holds rain before the inlet takes it. The department already prices that acre against the gallon target inside its own order. The per-acre dollar figures in the June 2024 article were left unused on purpose. Repeating them would invent a tariff. If you maintain one of those acres, or you walk past one on the way to the El, you are looking at the unit the consent order already understands. You are not looking at a price this series is allowed to quote.

Wholesale customers outside the city limits take service from the same plants. Their share of the flow was not extracted. A gallon they send into the system in a storm still ends in the same interceptors and, when those fill, in the same two rivers. The department remains the party on the order. The neighbors are a reason the rivers are a regional receiving water, not a reason to invent a second buyer called "the region."

The letter says unlimited funds would still not make a doubled pace realistic inside a decade. Time and crews bind the work, not a missing slogan. It also says the Drinking Water Revitalization Plan competes for the same ratepayer dollars. Read that as a constraint on the department's own pace. This page does not tell the department to accelerate the order.

## the hero, and the living system beside the hero

The department is the hero of this series because the department is already doing the work: greened acres, regulator and interceptor work, and gray pretreatment at the Northeast plant. The greened acre is their unit inside the consent order. The notes say an annual investment beside that unit was not sized. Without that number, this page does not name a price, and it does not invent the dollar that would make a price look finished.

What the program is trying to spare is the living meeting. Baxter still takes the Delaware. Belmont and Queen Lane still take the Schuylkill. In 2024 those three plants withdrew 258,180,000 gallons a day, and the rivers they take from are the rivers that receive the overflow. That split is [philadelphia drinks two rivers](/guide/what-philadelphia-stands-on?from=guide). The Schuylkill as piedmont water, and Eastwick as the place a later tide uses Darby and Mingo, are [the schuylkill meets a tide](/guide/the-schuylkill-meets-a-tide?from=guide). Ida's crest, kept off this gallon count, is [three waters reach philadelphia](/guide/three-waters-reach-philadelphia?from=guide).

The Northeast plant and the Cobbs Creek levee draft are gray projects already in motion. The levee is the Corps' riverine measure, about 1,400 feet in the 2023 draft, and it does not close Eastwick's tidal paths. The living edges beside those gray projects are the greened acre, the receiving rivers, and the tidal path the levee leaves open. That is a location in the notes. It is not a rate.

## who these notes cannot invoice

PhilaPort moved 840,751 TEUs in 2024 on a 45-foot Delaware channel. The $79.7 million Clean Ports award is equipment. Operating revenue was not taken. No tide-damage dollar was opened. The port's dependence is real, and it is written in [who depends on the rivers at philadelphia](/guide/who-depends-on-the-rivers-at-philadelphia?from=guide). There is no unit to sell them.

PECO's 2024 operating revenues were $3,973 million across southeastern Pennsylvania, and weather moves that book. The heat series owns that dependence. No flood-loss dollar for PECO is in these notes. A canopy pitch does not belong on a sewer page.

Insurers were not given a Philadelphia book. Ida's public figures are an early city estimate, a FEMA assessment, and a later reading that includes HUD money and unmet needs. They are not a carrier total. The airport, the hospitals, and unnamed property owners were deferred because no loss figure was opened.

The city apart from the water department plans Eastwick and plants trees. The water obligation is the department's. A second invoice to "the city" would double-count the same ratepayers.

## what you can do on monday

Open the [July 2023 letter](https://water.phila.gov/drops/pwd-response-to-penn-environment-sewage-statement-july-20/) and read the gallons against the 2011 baseline. That is the work already underway. If you want the rivers as a named account other people can find, start a line. A person reviews it. The parent agent receives it.

[Co-create tidal delaware](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=rivers-lakes.ensurance&name=tidal%20delaware&from=guide) under [rivers and lakes](/rivers-lakes.ensurance?from=guide). [Co-create schuylkill river](/specific/create?mode=suggest&agent=rivers-lakes.ensurance&name=schuylkill%20river&from=guide) under the same agent. [Clean water](/clean-water.ensurance?from=guide) and the [water cycle](/water-cycle.syndicate?from=guide) are live themes you can read beside those names. Neither river name is a minted basin agent. A Philadelphia coin is not minted. The city's older onchain place markers are not the route.

If you already hold a number for a greened acre, a channel, or a flood book, bring it to the co-create step. This page did not invent one for you, and it will not pretend the consent order is a product on a shelf.

## frequently asked questions

### what is green city, clean waters?

Philadelphia's combined-sewer program, begun in 2011, run by the water department under a consent order. The department's July 2023 letter says a typical year started at 13 billion gallons of overflow, that the 2021 report showed a 3.08 billion gallon reduction, and that about five billion gallons a year remained to be cut. Year 15 is 2026.

### how much does the program cost?

The department's letter says multi-billion and names a $100 million PENNVEST loan for Northeast plant pretreatment. Delaware Currents reported at least $4.5 billion at the halfway mark in June 2024. The article's figure is not in the letter. Per-acre prices from the article are not used here.

### is there a philadelphia watershed fund beside the consent order?

No fund of that kind is in the notes. The department's program is the public work. Port volume, PECO's weather-sensitive revenue, and Ida's relief figures do not convert into a second budget. A line for the tidal Delaware or the Schuylkill can be co-created under the rivers-and-lakes agent. Co-creating a name is not an invoice.

### who pays for the overflows today?

Ratepayers, through the Philadelphia Water Department. The city and the department are one government. Neighboring municipalities take wholesale service. This series does not send a separate bill to the mayor's office for the same gallons.

## sources

[Philadelphia Water Department, 20 July 2023](https://water.phila.gov/drops/pwd-response-to-penn-environment-sewage-statement-july-20/) — baseline gallons, the 2021 reduction, the remainder, the PENNVEST loan, and the pace constraint.

[Delaware Currents, 11 June 2024](https://delawarecurrents.org/2024/06/11/green-city-clean-waters/) — the halfway cost figure, kept separate from the department's letter.

[Philadelphia Water Department, 2025 transcript response](https://www.phila.gov/media/20250529095434/2025-PWD-Transcript-Response-Final.pdf) — 2024 withdrawals from both rivers.

[PhilaPort, 22 January 2025](https://www.philaport.com/philaport-marks-historic-milestones-with-major-infrastructure-developments-and-record-volumes/) — 2024 TEUs and the Clean Ports award, as context that is not a river budget.

[Exelon and PECO, Form 10-K, year ended 31 December 2024](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/9466/000110935725000043/exc-20241231.htm) — territory operating revenues, pointed at the heat series.

## the series

- [philadelphia drinks two rivers](/guide/what-philadelphia-stands-on?from=guide)
- [who depends on the rivers at philadelphia](/guide/who-depends-on-the-rivers-at-philadelphia?from=guide)
- [the schuylkill meets a tide](/guide/the-schuylkill-meets-a-tide?from=guide)
- [three waters reach philadelphia](/guide/three-waters-reach-philadelphia?from=guide)
- [who already works the philadelphia gallons](/guide/who-already-works-the-philadelphia-gallons?from=guide)