What pollutes the Creek?
In late summer of a dry year, as much as 95 percent of the water in the creek is treated sewage from the seven treatment plants upstream in Montgomery County. (See Water Quality.) Every rainstorm washes a variety of animal wastes, lawn and garden chemicals, household cleaners, and things that drip from cars and trucks into the Creek. (See Stormwater Runoff.) Sometimes even industrial and commercial pollutants from Montgomery County and Philadelphia get into the Creek. Heavy rainstorms overload Philadelphia’s aging sewer system and force cross connections between sanitary and storm sewers. It’s little wonder that a 2002 study by The Conservation Fund listed the Wissahickon as one of the Schuylkill River’s four most polluted tributaries.
