Samuel S. Baxter Water Treatment Plant - Philadelphia, PA
N 40° 02.645 W 074° 59.817
18T E 500260 N 4432650
This is one of three drinking water treatment plants operated by The Philadelphia Water Department. It is named after the first Philadelphia Water Commissioner.
Waymark Code: WMC3D2
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 07/20/2011
Views: 6
About the Building
The Baxter Water Treatment Plant treats an average of 200 million gallons a day--enough water to fill almost one-third of the Spectrum. When the Baxter Plant was opened in 1909 it was called the Torresdale Plant. It was renamed in 1982 for Samuel S. Baxter, the first Philadelphia Water Commissioner. The Baxter Plant treats water from the Delaware River. Baxter provides water to almost 60% of the City's population. It also serves some parts of Lower Bucks County.
About the Person
As already stated, Samuel Baxter (1905 - 1982) was the first Philadelphia Water Commissioner. In his honor, The Samuel S. Baxter Memorial Award was established, which recognizes the person or company who has contributed most to sound water resource management in the Delaware River Basin. SOURCE Baxter was born February 6, 1905, in Philadelphia. He lived and worked here for his entire life except for a four-year period when he served in World War II. He received an engineering degree from Drexel which is how he got into the water treatment game. He took the civil service exam and thus began a career with the city that lasted forty-nine years. He was in private practice for ten years after he left public service as a Municipal Engineer and Administrator. He died a day after his birthday on February 7, 1982 at seventy-seven years of age. SOURCE
Additional comments:
When I visited I was 'rushed' by security who followed me to my car, detained me and began asking me a series of questions. Apparently, water treatment facilities fall under the auspices of homeland security. I explained I was doing a civics project with my son and he needed some pictures for his presentation. The outside is completely surrounded by fence. There are also two water tanks on either side of the facility as well.
I was only able to use satellite recon to get eyes on the rear which revealed huge water storage areas typical of these large city treatment facilities.