While preparing for an event on water and flood resilience, a company in Bristol spilled over 8,000 gallons of a toxic chemical into the Delaware River. For several days, much of Philadelphia was unsure whether it was safe to drink the water from the tap. 

This gave us, at Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together (GREAT), a whole new motivation for coming together in community to discuss our shared challenges and possible solutions. We already knew that Germantown is one of Philadelphia’s most flood-prone neighborhoods due to Wingohocking Creek being paved many years ago, leaving an overwhelmed sewer system. 

So, as a neighborhood group using our collective resources to build community resilience, this felt important to center. 

We invited neighbors to reflect on what it was like to experience that disruption and  how they might be better prepared for the future. We also learned that Germantown has multiple water sources and not all were even affected by the spill. 

That event launched GREAT’s initiative around water resilience. And after a few smaller community events, we launched the GREAT Water Working Group in fall 2023. A few people who joined that group had their own very specific issues related to water and flooding, including Anita Collins, Christina Smith and Allison Wright. 

Collins and Smith are both block captains, with varying experiences with flooding. Ten-plus-year block captain Collins tuned into flooding when her friend’s daughter passed away in her car while driving through a flooded street in East Germantown. Smith had for years been experiencing flooding in her basement after a heavy rain. 

Both connected with the Philadelphia Rain Check program — Smith before joining GREAT, and Collins after, helping to manage excess stormwater through rain barrels. 

Collins has become a supporter of the program and has helped to promote it, while Smith has never experienced basement flooding since. 

Another group member, Allison Wright, joined the group because she was frustrated by the many water disruptions each year in her apartment building on Wayne Avenue. 

Most disruptions were a result of local construction, often for several hours at a time, and in many cases with no advance notice. She said she’d have to think, “Am I going to be able to cook? To do laundry? Take a shower? You know, you take it for granted that you’re gonna have” water. 

As a renter, Wright and her neighbors often did not receive proper communication, and they also did not have control over how this issue would be handled. 

“When it happens, people get very upset and they want something to happen, they want action taken, but when it’s over with, they forget about it. … In a crisis situation when you don’t have water, it’s not the time to plan for it,” she said. 

Many of Wright’s neighbors lack transportation or have physical limitations, making the purchase of large quantities of water a challenge. Within our Water Working Group, we discuss that disposable water bottles at the store are not a sustainable solution, as many Germantowners may recall finding empty shelves when they went to purchase bottled water during the 2023 chemical spill. 

In 2024, Collins, Smith and Wright signed up for a pilot project through GREAT: Water & Flood Resilience Community Connectors. For several months, the group met on a monthly basis as each “community connector” pursued a block-level project with their immediate neighbors to address a shared concern and interest. 

This process generated solutions and resources that we hope to scale up in Germantown, including stormwater management at home via rain barrels, preparing for emergencies and disruptions, and exploring stories and history to revisit alternate ways to access water. 

Below are some resources and ideas we have come across in our work that we hope will benefit all of our neighbors: 

• Have water on hand: In case of a shutoff, save jugs or large glass bottles from wine, kombucha, etc., and fill them up! 
• Wright and her neighbors used Water Bricks, which are stackable and easy to store under a coffee table or in other tight areas. 
• If you have the storage space, save some extra water for your neighbors who don’t. 
• Check in with your elderly or vulnerable neighbors: Do they need help getting water? Do they have other needs that neighbors should be aware of in case of an emergency? 
• Get things off the ground in the basement: To protect your appliances and other belongings, raise everything in your basement off the ground with cinder blocks and keep smaller items in plastic bins. 
• Does your neighbor have frequent flooding in their basement? Could you recruit another neighbor to help raise items in their basement off the ground? 
• Get a free rain barrel: To get a free rain barrel through the City of Philadelphia, sign up to receive notification of the required workshop schedule. GREAT’s Water Working Group successfully helped bring an in-person workshop to the Water Shed in Germantown, and there are more to come. 
• Learn about other options for rainwater collection at appropedia.org.  
• Visit the Water Shed: Learn more about flooding in Germantown at the new community educational space located at 5300 Wayne Ave. It’s open Thursday and Friday from noon-6 p.m., and Saturday from 1-6 p.m. Follow the Water Shed on Instagram at @watershedphl. 
• See local off-grid water education: Follow @seedweedreap on Instagram or visit their website. 
• Watch how flooding affects Germantown: GREAT participated in a film highlighting the neighborhood as one of the most flood-prone neighborhoods in the city. The film, “Why Germantown Floods,” was created by GreenTreks. The Flood Ready Germantown series also includes short videos on flood insurance and being prepared for floods. 
• Learn more about flooding in Germantown through the Philadelphia Water Department’s “Wingo-WHAT?” website.
• Use GREAT’s Organizer’s Guide: We’ve created a guide for emergency preparedness and community resilience to build connections and prepare with your neighbors. 
• Keep filtration products handy: Products that are good at filtering water in case you have to adapt to a new source (but not everything; do your research about biological versus chemical) include: Portable personal filtration/LifeStraw bottle; Super portable personal filtration/LifeStraw; Stationary filtration, which can filter enough drinking water for 25 people per day in a survival situation/Community Filter. 

If you are interested in this work or have water/flood-specific issues you’d like to share, please feel free to reach out: greatgtown@gmail.com .

 GREAT is also partnering with the Academy of Natural Sciences on aspects of this work, as well as for a two-year Germantown climate resilience planning project, which we hope to officially kick off by late summer/early fall with a public community event. Stay tuned by following our social media on Instagram and Facebook and subscribing to our e-newsletter. 

This article was created in collaboration with Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together, which has been working on water resilience issues in the neighborhood for the past few years. Lindsay Stolkey, the writer of this piece, is an organizer within the group.