A recent PennEnvironment report found that Pennsylvania school districts are failing to keep lead out of school drinking water. Grid spoke with the executive director of PennEnvironment, David Masur, to learn more. Why should people be concerned about lead in school drinking water? Lead is unsafe at any level, especially for kids. There’s no “safe”
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On a walk along Cobbs Creek in West Philadelphia I inspected some old ruins. On the opposite side of the creek I could see the tall earth bank interrupted by a stone block wall, covered in some parts by crumbling concrete. I walked to the water and found I was standing on a matching surface.
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Calvin Keeys didn’t see many people like him working in conservation. “Growing up I didn’t have a lot of Black naturalists to look up to,” Keeys says. When his father brought home information about MobilizeGreen, an internship program at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum that connects young BIPOC people with careers in
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When the remnants of Hurricane Ida arrived in the Philadelphia region last month, it brought with it the kinds of chaos we used to just hear about: flooding, property destruction, mudslides and at least one dude back flipping into the sewage pit formerly known as I-676 in Center City. “I definitely thought about the water
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There’s a shallow lagoon surrounded by embankments at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum that provides a good habitat for the northern snakehead and the common carp. Because the two invasive fish species are originally from other places in the world but have thrived in our waters to the detriment of native species, the
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I stood on the bank at the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum in June and cast my green frog top lure out into an open patch of water amid the weeds knowing somewhere in there swam northern snakeheads. Twenty years ago, they probably didn’t. The northern snakehead, or Channa argus, hails from East
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San Francisco has its earthquakes and Miami has its hurricanes, but the disaster Philadelphia most often confronts is flooding. Flooding is the most common natural disaster in the country, with Pennsylvania experiencing the most flood occurrences of any of the 50 states. And climate change all but promises that the near future will be wetter,
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It was flooding in the Ablett Village public housing development in Camden’s Cramer Hill neighborhood. It had rained overnight from Saturday, April 24, into Sunday, April 25, and that brought water that pooled in driveways and on the sidewalks running between the area’s long, two-story brick apartment buildings. This is not at all unusual, according
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This is the first time I’ve ever cracked open a beer as I started an article. It’s a Delco Lager from 2SP Brewing Company: a bit malty and quite drinkable, good for a warm spring day. At 4% alcohol by volume (ABV), the buzz shouldn’t interfere with writing (you be the judge). The alcohol isn’t
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When I was a kid—we’ll call this long ago time “the ’70s”—seatbelts hung unused while Mom’s arm reached across our bodies any time our car came to a sudden stop. Beer and soda were packaged in aluminum cans and had what was called a “pull-tab,” or “ring-tab.” You would put your finger through the ring
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On a trip to the Meadows at FDR Park at the end of last summer, we got our feet wet. The Meadows is a repurposing of the recently closed golf course at the South Philadelphia park. What were once fairways are now green spaces for play, short-term art installations and homes for wildlife. We were
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