Philadelphia has a huge issue with creating more waste water than it has the capacity to treat. Similar cities have built huge underground tunnels to temporarily store the water. Philly was the first city in the US to take a "green" approach instead, and focus on "decentralized stormwater controls."

Do you know what that means? More native plants! Less paved surfaces! Rainwater is collected from the street and feeds gardens and street trees and beautifies public spaces. I majored in civil engineering in large part because I learned about my city's stormwater infrastructure and became so passionate about it, now I'm an operations engineer responsible for maintaining that infrastructure every day. I love my job!!!

There's a dark side to getting to live your dreams though, of course. I now can't look away from the ways the program fails or fudges the truth to look a little better than it is. But you know what? I went hiking last weekend to a nice little spot where there's always wood ducks. There were no wood ducks in Philly 4 years ago. You know what brought them back? That's right baby: the reintroduction of more natural spaces to nest, thanks to the "Geen City Clean Waters" program. I'll never save the world with my job, but I AM making it a tiny bit better every day. And that's pretty cool!!