Do you know what’s in
your drinking water?

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

The blue towers seen on State Road near Linden Avenue stand like guards before the Delaware River.
The treasure they watch over is one of the city’s most precious resources — its drinking water.
As part of the Samuel S. Baxter Water Treatment Plant, the towers play a role in transforming raw water from the Delaware River to drinking water for about 60 percent of the city’s residents, no small task by any means.
"Before you step foot in this facility, you have no idea how important it is," said state Rep. Michael McGeehan (D-173rd dist.), who organized a tour of the plant last week in honor of Earth Day, April 22.
Proud may be an understatement —according to plant manager Kathryn Guest, the quality of the drinking water treated at Baxter is five times better than the national average.
"We in the drinking water treatment business are proud of what we do," she said.
When it opened in 1909 at 9001 State Road, Baxter was called the Torresdale Plant. It was renamed in 1982 for Samuel S. Baxter, Philadelphia’s first water commissioner.
The Baxter plant encompasses about 138 acres stretching from Linden Avenue to Pennypack Street. It is bounded by State Road on the west and Pleasant Hill Park on the east. There are three processing buildings and storage facilities onsite.
The Philadelphia Water Department operates additional water treatment plants on the Schuylkill River — Belmont, at Kelly Drive, and Queen Lane, at Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. None of the treatment plants handles sewage water. Locally, that job belongs to the Northeast Wastewater Treatment Plant at Richmond Street and Wheatsheaf Lane.
Baxter engages a network of mammoth machinery, winding pipes and unceasing filters to produce 168 gallons of drinking water each day (they can treat up to 280 million gallons if necessary).
A staff of 54 works around-the-clock at the Baxter plant, treating the water before it travels through some of the city’s 3,300 miles of water mains. Some water also goes to Bucks County.
"In this building, it’s not just water and pumps," Guest said. "There are people, people who come and spend a career caring about what they do."
Delaware River water goes from the plant’s intake channel to residential and commercial taps in a complicated, nine-step process.
The water passes through a screen to remove debris, like leaves and litter, that is floating in it. Workers then add chlorine to kill organisms that cause disease, then they transfer the water to a large reservoir for up to 34 hours so that remaining large particles settle.
In a process called flocculation, a coagulating, or congealing, chemical combines with suspended particles in the water to form a mass called floc. This helps remove more than 90 percent of suspended solids from the water.
The water then travels through a 94-filter gallery made of sand and anthracite coal in some parts. The two blue towers enter the picture during the backwashing process, during which filtered water is pumped up into the tanks and then released through the bottom of the tower and directed under the filters in the wash mode.
The water gets additional cleaning before getting infused with ammonia to remove the taste and smell of the chlorine added at the beginning of the process. Fluoride and zinc are also added and the chlorine level is adjusted.
The water department must ensure that water quality meets the ever-changing requirements under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). To comply, chemists at Baxter test the water throughout the treatment process.
"All the water is watched as it moves through the system," Guest said.
Workers also monitor weather conditions and chemical spills along the Delaware River — if a problem occurs, they can close the plant’s intake pipe. The water department’s Bureau of Laboratory Services also tests the water at 65 points throughout the city.
The plant wouldn’t be left high and dry if a power outage or other emergency occurred — it can store up to 190 million gallons of drinking water underground onsite. Guest said the plant used to invite more groups for tours of the plant but have reduced the tours following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Even if residents can’t see in person how the plant works, they should be happy to have it in the Northeast, McGeehan said.
"We should be proud of this in our back yards," he said. ••
More information on the Baxter Water Treatment Plant can be found online at www.phila.gov/water/uwc
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com