For the 24th consecutive year, our Baxter, Belmont, and Queen Lane Drinking Water Treatment Plants received the Director’s Award from the Partnership for Safe Water. The Partnership for Safe Water
Director’s Award (PSW) is sponsored by the American Water Works Association, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the National Association of Water Companies, and the Water Research Foundation. The Directors Award recognizes utilities that complete Phase III of the PSW in consecutive years, honoring their efforts in continuously optimizing treatment plant and distribution system operation and performance.

Dottie Baumgarten was honored by Need in Deed, an organization working to connect classrooms with the community to help students realize their potential. Dottie has been an educator with PWD and Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (FWWIC) for 14 years. During her time with PWD and FWWIC, she has been leading tours of wastewater and drinking water treatment plants, visiting classrooms with a watershed lesson, providing educational tables at public events, and talking to business owners concerning stormwater runoff. She has been a Need in Deed community partner since 2017. 

Congratulations to Commissioner Randy E. Hayman, Esq. for being recognized in 2024 with the Philadelphia Business Journal Diversity in Business Award - an honor he has also received in St. Louis and Washington, D.C.

Commissioner Hayman was also selected as part of the 2024 Philadelphia cohort of the Titan 100 program, which recognizes a premier group of 100 CEO’s and C-level executives in a region. Representing industries across the private and public sectors, these leaders are titans who demonstrate exceptional leadership, vision, passion, and influence in their respective fields.

The WaterNow Alliance recognizes Stephanie Chiorean for water utility leadership that “demonstrates promise and creativity in advancing meaningful cultural change in the areas of sustainability, equity, or community engagement.”

Stephanie has had a diverse 15-year career at PWD and now leads the Program Development team within Planning & Research’s Strategic Planning group. She continues to build strategic partnerships and programs through cross-sector collaboration with community stakeholders to promote nature-based solutions, such as green stormwater infrastructure (GSI), that advance equity, sustainability, and climate resilience. This includes building a strong partnership program with the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) through which more than 40 SDP schools have collaborated with PWD to transform their schoolyards with integrated GSI.

53rd and Baltimore Complete and Green Streets (Public Projects Category)

Completed in 2021, the comprehensive Cobbs Creek project centered on three objectives: achieve Green City, Clean Waters sewer overflow reduction goals, improve pedestrian and vehicular safety at a busy intersection, and provide other community-based benefits to neighboring residents. This project was made possible by PWD’s Green Stormwater & Stream Design Unit, Planning and Research Unit, and Public Engagement team.

Stormwater Connect Tool (Innovation Category)

In 2022, PWD’s Billing and Incentives team developed Stormwater Connect — an online tool designed to link green stormwater vendors with non-residential property owners. The site’s goal is to help ease the process of connecting property owners with construction vendors specializing in green stormwater infrastructure retrofits.

Honored by the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin, the PWD’s Climate Change Adaption Program (CCAP) team won a 2023 Water Resources Award, recognizing leadership, innovation, and excellence in the science and management of water resources within the Delaware Basin. Our CCAP uses a risk-based approach based on the latest actionable science to plan for the impacts of climate change, helping ensure the long-term resilience of our drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater systems and services.

In July 2023, PWD was recognized as a Utility of the Future Today in the activity area of Watershed Stewardship by the Water Environment Federation (WEF). Per WEF’s website, the program seeks to form and motivate a community of like-minded water utilities engaged in advancing resource efficiency and recovery, developing proactive relationships with stakeholders, and establishing resilient, sustainable, and livable communities.

PWD’s watershed stewardship initiatives take place through multiple programs, including our Watershed Protection Program, Climate Change Adaptation Program, and various planning, research, and technical modeling teams. The award highlighted the Department’s “One Water” approach to watershed protection, recognizing that any impairments to water quality upstream of Philadelphia eventually affect water quality in the city’s waterways.