Philadelphia Is Using Mussels as Mini Treatment Plants

Living organisms have always been a part of water treatment, but a first-of-its-kind facility in Philadelphia is advancing that concept from microscopic organisms to filtering water with freshwater mussels. In 1815, Philadelphia had the distinction of building one of the nation’s first municipal water distribution plants. They are continuing that legacy of innovation with the nation’s first city-owned mussel hatchery. The exhibition laboratory is housed in the very same Fairmount Water Works facility that made history in the early 1800s. In conjunction with a separate production-scale hatchery that will be built and run by Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the