01
About the Utility
Philadelphia Water Department runs the City of Philadelphia's drinking-water system and its wastewater and stormwater system. The City issues Water and Wastewater Revenue Bonds for the Department, and charges are set by the Philadelphia Water, Sewer and Storm Water Rate Board, which approves settlements negotiated with the Public Advocate. The water system provides retail service to a population put at 1,550,542 on the 2023 Census Bureau estimate, through approximately 505,000 active accounts at June 2024. Wholesale business is narrower: one wholesale water contract and ten wholesale wastewater contracts. Under the Tiered Assistance Program, low-income customers pay bills based on household income, with the discount recovered from other customers.
02
Water System
Philadelphia draws its water from the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers under a state allocation permit. Three treatment plants, Baxter, Queen Lane and Belmont, provide a combined rated capacity of 546 MGD, and in fiscal 2024 the system distributed 83,777 MG through approximately 3,200 miles of mains. Water loss is the principal operating constraint: the consulting engineer's annual audit put non-revenue water at 41.7% of supply by volume in fiscal 2019, with earlier years charted below. The rivers also carry upstream risk, shown when a chemical discharge from the Trinseo facility in Bucks County reached the Delaware in March 2023.
Non-revenue water
Annual water audit, fiscal years to 30 June, FY2016–FY2019 (actuals)
All four values come from one table on one basis; by volume they were 40.4%, 41.1%, 42.3% and 41.7% of water supplied. Later audits are not in the evidence reviewed.
Sources: City of Philadelphia, Water and Wastewater Revenue Bonds Series 2021C Official Statement, consulting engineer's annual water audit (Table 4-3).03
Wastewater System
The Department also collects and treats the city's wastewater. Its three water pollution control plants, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast, are served by approximately 3,700 miles of sewers, including approximately 1,850 miles of combined sewers that also receive stormwater. A consent order with the state, entered in June 2011, requires the Green City, Clean Waters plan to address combined sewer overflows. Routine control of the combined system has tightened: dry-weather discharges fell from 17 in fiscal 2017 to one in fiscal 2025.
04
Investment & Priorities
The proposed six-year capital improvement program from fiscal 2026 totals $4,731,850,000, with 80% budgeted for renewing existing facilities. These are budgets, not spending outturns, and delivery has trailed ambition: in fiscal 2023 the Department encumbered 20.6 miles of water main replacement against a 40-mile goal. Lead service line replacement has been added to the proposed plan following the federal Lead and Copper Rule Improvements. Funding draws on City revenue bonds rated A+, A1 and A+ by Fitch, Moody's and S&P, and on a federal WIFIA award.
05
Sustainability & Resilience
Green City, Clean Waters is the defining adaptation programme. Begun in 2011, it uses green infrastructure to reduce the volume of stormwater entering combined sewers, and regulation requires Philadelphia to reduce at least 85 percent of combined sewer pollution, with goals due by 2036. For drinking water, PWD reports PFAS levels below all state and federal regulations, yet new PFAS rules require significant treatment upgrades and it is piloting new treatment options. Its strategic energy plan set a goal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
06
Key Challenges
- Reducing at least 85 percent of combined sewer pollution by 2036.
- Accelerating water main renewal, at 20.6 miles in fiscal 2023 against a 40-mile goal.
- Replacing lead service lines within the federal ten-year deadline.
- Preparing treatment for national PFAS limits from 2031.
- Financing the proposed capital programme as bills rise and assistance enrolment grows.