In The Cradle of Industry and Liberty

tanneries and slaughterhouses in the 1730s
to the Fairmount Park Commission demolishing
factories along the Wissahickon Creek
and Schuylkill River in the 1870s to protect
the city’s water supply to the current work of
a host of regional environmental groups.
Striking the appropriate balance between the
needs of industries that must impact natural
resources to operate profitably and residents
who want safe, healthy environments in
which to live and work has often been difficult.
Air and water pollution and ground
contamination from industry have been
ongoing problems in many parts of the
city, particularly in communities such as
in Southwest Philadelphia, Bridesburg, and
Port Richmond, where oil refineries, chemical
companies, and gas works have been concentrated
over the years.
The Schuylkill River presents a revealing
case study of the impact of competing agendas
on the landscape. The section of the river
above Center City where industries were
removed in the nineteenth century is one of
Philadelphia’s most picturesque and popular
recreation areas, while large parts of the lower
Schuylkill in Southwest Philadelphia have
long been an industrial no man’s land of
chemical plants and oil refineries. Efforts to
reclaim once heavily industrial areas along
the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers for public
enjoyment have intensified in recent years,
with public and private groups working to
create attractive riverfront trails along these
waterways. Negotiating the often competing
agendas of industry and the environment
will continue to be a challenge, especially as
Philadelphia seeks to become a major energy
hub in the early twenty-first century.
PHILADELPHIA
AS ENERGY HUB
A number of Philadelphia business leaders
and government agencies are actively working
to develop the city as an international energy
hub. Spearheaded by Philip Rinaldi, CEO of
Philadelphia Energy Solutions, which owns
the city’s two oil refineries, these efforts seek
to build on Philadelphia’s long history and
established infrastructure for oil refining and
chemical processing to have Pennsylvania’s
large deposits of natural gas, as well as fuel
sources from other areas, transported to the
city for processing, use in local industry, or
export. Just as in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, when huge quantities of
coal were shipped to Philadelphia from north
and west of the city to be exported or serve as
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