In this learning experience, students will feel like time travelers. They are sent back in time to view first hand evidence, recorded in an 1883/84 survey,  of pollutants being dumped into the  Schuylkill River.  They will read historical accounts to determine if any measures were taken by the factory owners to deal with waste other than dumping in the river. Students will discuss and debate if they were the factory owner,  would they have any ideas to avoid using the river for dumping.

As the population in Philadelphia grew, factories and industry provided work for many people. Because of its proximity to the river, Manayunk became a primary location for the textile, paper, and wood related industries which needed water in their processes. Perhaps also because of their proximity to the river, these businesses primarily dumped their waste products (factory and human waste!) directly into the river too. The polluted water traveled downstream to places like Fairmount , where water from the river was pumped into a reservoir for drinking water .  In this learning experience,  students use primary source evidence. Students will become investigative reporters, researching primary source documents to learn about the problem and then discuss the question of who is responsible, just as the City Commissioners did in 1885 and for a number of years after until a solution was found.

Slides 3-5: Present the photograph on slide 3 of a section of the Schuylkill River near the South Street bridge from 1918. Have students share what they notice in the picture. Observations may include:

• Children (boys) sitting on the edge
• Factory buildings
• Drainage hole near where the boys are sitting
• Water is still
• Smoke tower/Exhaust tower

Ask students what might the kids have been doing at the river. If they say swim, prompt them to describe what experience would have been like.

• How did the water feel? Smell? What might they hear?
• How did they get to the water?
• How did they get in and out of the water?
• Do they think the water was clean?
• Would you want to swim here? Why or why not?

Remind students that water is flowing downstream in the Schuylkill River (from left to right in the photo).

On Slide 6-9  present a historical map of Manayunk (map needs to be selected and zoomed in for best resolution) and give students a few minutes to notice/identify the factories along the river. Manayunk is  upstream from where the boys were swimming and the factories there were dumping large amounts of industrial and human waste into the river.  That waste and pollution was flowing downstream to where the boys were swimming. These slides help facilitate the inquiry into the next activity.

Let’s investigate!

Assign small groups or pairs one of the excerpts from the Engineer’s  survey report from  1883/84  that lists polluters and  pollutants up and down the Schuylkill River from headwaters to Philadelphia.  Excerpts in the pull down menu called  Materials to the right.

These are transcribed from primary source documents. Students may not recognize all of the words or terms they read. Have them look for the words/terms they do recognize or can identify using other clues in the excerpt.

If you would rather have the students look at a spreadsheet of the pollution data, a google sheet and pdf version are also available. The spreadsheet identifies the factories and companies along the river, where they are located, what they manufacture, and the types and amounts of waste that was being dumped into the river every day.

Students are investigative reporters! To prepare to tell the story, they need to examine the evidence. Find out what was being dumper, how much and who the manufacturers were by name.

Using three different colors, highlight ( or underline) the following details

• Who is the company and what do they manufacture?
• What are they sending into the river?
• Description of what is being dumped

Every time drainage is mentioned- circle it.

Have students share their findings.

On Slide 11 students will do a short role play activity.  They will be asked to respond to the question below from an assigned perspective.  (Be prepared that they many not come to any one answer)

Who should be responsible for cleaning up the river?

The slide also includes a quote from the original report stating that it is the responsibility of the city to clean up the water. Remind students that, as they learned in the previous unit, the Schuylkill River was the primary source of drinking water for many of the residents of the city.

In trying to form an answer to the question, students will assume varying perspectives/roles, like the following:

• Factory owner
• City resident in Manayunk
• City resident downstream from Manayunk
• Someone sick with typhoid

Slide 12:  In groups or individually assign each of  the roles above  to your students.  Each of these represents someone who may have a strong opinion about who should be responsible. Give them 5 minutes to craft an answer to the question– that is, who they think should be responsible for solving the problem of unsanitary waste being dumped in the river. Have groups justify their decision with at least 3 supporting reasons.

Slide 13: Come to consensus (if you can!) on who should take responsibility. This question was debated multiple times by administrators in history too.

Students  may also start to brainstorm solutions  Are there ways the waste might be reused for other purposes?

In the next learning experience, we will begin to explore the solutions the city implemented and that are still in use today.