The following post, first published on February 23, 2023, has been updated.
“Revere the way of the river. Nearby my home.” – William Penn
In 1682, William Penn chose the left bank of the confluence of rivers and major tributaries upon which he founded the planned city of Philadelphia. This area would become known as the Schuylkill River watershed and the Schuylkill Canal, or simply the Canal. The Canal would eventually be known as the Schuylkill River.
The upper portions in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachian Mountains, where the folding of the mountain ridges modified bituminous into widespread anthracite deposits, lies the Blue Mountain barrier ridge. Millions of tons of coal from this area, known as Pennsylvania’s Anthracite Coal Region, flowed by waterway and rail into Philadelphia to feed the iron and steel industry.
The source of the Schuylkill’s Eastern branch is in heavily mined land. This ridgeline lies south of Tuscarora Lake along a drainage divide with the Little Schuylkill River, about a mile east of the village of Tuscarora and about a mile west of Tamaqua, at Tuscarora Springs in Schuylkill County. Tuscarora Lake is one source of the Little Schuylkill River.
The West branch starts near Minersville and joins the Eastern branch at the town of Schuylkill Haven. It then combines with the Little Schuylkill River downstream in the town of Port Clinton. The Tulpehocken Creek joins it at the western edge of Reading. Wissahickon Creek joins it in northwest Philadelphia. Other major tributaries include: Maiden Creek, Manatawny Creek, French Creek and Perkiomen Creek. The Schuylkill joins the Delaware at the site of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard, now the Philadelphia Naval Business Center, just northeast of Philadelphia International Airport.
I grew up on the river. One of the villages along the Schuylkill River is Miquon, incorporated in the 1600s. It became our home because my Dad worked at the Hamilton Paper Company, located a stone’s throw from the banks of the river. Dad worked there for as long as I can remember. The mill was within walking distance of our house and it was my job to take him his hot lunch, every day, prepared by my mom. I walked the short distance to the mill and found my way to the huge paper-making machine, Number 7, where he worked to deliver his lunch. I realize now that this must have been quite a sight because I was very young and I continued delivering his meals until I started first grade.
I remember first rowing across the river to meet with my friend, Hope. She lived across on the other side of the river so it was easy for me to pick her up. I loved rowing, and started rowing officially with clubs and competing in 1959.
This is a lot of history – but I thought you should know it before I go into detail about what the river is like to me today.
The Dredging Project
I’ve stayed involved with rowing on the Schuylkill River ever since in 1959, and was aware in the last few years of efforts to dredge the river. Those efforts were put on hold last year when the first company hired to do the job could not, for various reasons, complete the work. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was soon looking for a replacement company to take up and finish the dredging project. I was notified of this action, and about being a potential leader of a Schuylkill River clean-up project committee that would lobby the engineers for the appropriate company to do the pick-up dredging. Soon, one of the of the prime movers at one of the boat houses became very vocal about who that company to do the dredging might be. He began peppering the street with emails decrying the incompetencies of the Army Corps, the City of Philadelphia, and the various dredging companies who might be involved in the project.
I was so turned off by the emails – with multitudes of blind copies being sent to the street, talking down the City and the Army Corps – that I resigned the task force committee and announced that I intended to do so.
Thereafter, I was contacted by many of the people who I know in the rowing community who encouraged me to stay with the project. I have done a lot of thinking about this to the point of wanting to drop my interest in the project altogether – but I cannot do that; I cannot stand by and let dishonest people make money on a project that is worth doing. After several months, a number of calls with trusted rowing contacts, and a lot more research about the river and rowing history, I was ready to share my opinions about the river clean-up project that I recently abandoned.
The turning point for me was the invitation I received to an upcoming gathering of powerful people on Boathouse Row. I then learned that the project leaders had collaborated on writing a history of the failed dredging project. Stan Cwiklinski shared part of their memo with me:
“Over the last year or so, there have been a tremendous number of emails sent to various people and organizations that from my perch here in San Diego have been difficult to track and remember. At this time, I thought it would be wise to regroup, analyze, determine options, and decide next steps.”
My immediate response was that my own opinion was so finely stated in their letter that there was no need for me to be at the meeting. I still feel that way, especially after re-reading that cogent letter from attorney Alberta Adams representing the Aegis Security Insurance Company; l understand that despite mistakes that were made by all the players involved, they reached an amicable solution and identified the company that should finish the dredging.
In my personal view, an essential element of Philadelphia, my hometown, is best captured in the spectacle of men and women rowing on the Schuylkill. They are not idly paddling around a city pond. They deserve to continue to row, doing so in a clean and fair water environment.
Furthermore, clean water will play an important part in the US Olympic rowing trials in the future; Philadelphia stands to lose face if we cannot host the Trials. This opportunity to host US Olympic rowing trials for the next two Olympics would be lost if the river is not dredged now. *
*UPDATE: On July 20th, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers posted the following update on the Schuylkill dredging project:
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is managing a project to dredge portions of the Schuylkill River above the Fairmount Dam in Philadelphia, PA. The project is funded through a combination of the following sources: City of Philadelphia, State, local universities, William Penn Foundation, Schuylkill Navy and the rowing and paddling communities. Additionally, the Schuylkill River project recently received federal funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Status: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Philadelphia District terminated its contract with Atlantic Subsea Inc. USACE then completed a re-procurement process and awarded a contract for dredging Sections 1 + 2 (Boathouse Row). The contractor began test dredging in early August and completed construction of the Boathouse Row area in October 2022. Approximately 28,000 cubic yards of sediment were dredged from the section and placed in the Fort Mifflin Dredged Material Placement Area. USACE later awarded contract options for the Adaptive Rowing Lagoon and the Race Course portions of the river. Dredging operations were completed at the Adaptive Rowing Lagoon in the Spring of 2023. Dredging operations began along the Race Course in mid-July and are ongoing.