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Research was initially done on development of a wastewater treatment system in the 1910s, Baxter said in the 1975 oral history interview, but the system was not fully built out for years, in part because of the Great Depression and World War II.
Baxter oversaw an upgrade of an existing wastewater treatment plant in Northeast Philly and the completion of two new sewage treatment plants, in Southeast and Southwest Philadelphia. By 1966, all sewage in Philadelphia was diverted to one of these three treatment plants, Levine said.
“They were at least giving it some treatment, and the rivers started to get cleaner,” Levine said.
The city’s wastewater treatment plants were upgraded further under the Clean Water Act of 1972, with new treatment steps like using microbes to eliminate bacteria.
“You look out on the river today, it looks appealing,” former regional EPA manager Richard Pepino told WHYY in 2019. “It did not look appealing in those days.”
He saw Philly’s water system as a ‘vision of progress’
In the early years of the 20th century, Philadelphia’s water treatment system was state-of-the-art, according to Baxter’s 1975 oral history interview. But by the time he became water commissioner, the system had suffered years of deferred maintenance.
“By the time World War II ended, the Philadelphia treatment plants, which were real wonders in 1910 and ‘15, had run down so badly that our water was the laughing stock around the country,” Baxter said.
Baxter embarked on a series of infrastructure improvements, which included finishing rebuilding or upgrading the city’s current three drinking water treatment plants, automating the treatment process, and fluoridating the drinking water. He built and upgraded pumping stations and 1,500 miles of new water mains and sewers, according to a tribute written by a fellow member of the National Academy of Engineering after his death. He also started 24/7 monitoring of water quality at the treatment plants, Kishinchand said.
“He was an innovator,” Kishinchand said. “He was a forward-thinking guy.”
By 1961, Baxter was offering public tours to Philadelphians and out-of-town visitors of the city’s new “push-button” water treatment plants, according to an article in the Inquirer that year.
“Philadelphia’s water system is fast becoming one of the most modern and efficient in the nation,” Baxter said at the time. “We feel residents should have the opportunity to see what they have received for the money they invested.”
Kishinchand was hired by Baxter in 1968 to work in the Water Department’s materials testing laboratory. He remembers Baxter investing in not just systems, but also people — encouraging professional development for existing employees and recruiting top talent — so that “the quality of the product that he was sending out to the public was as high-quality as could be obtained at that time.”
The technological improvements made to Philly’s water system in the mid-20th century probably would have happened around that time anyway, Levine said, “but Baxter’s leadership really, I think, provided the impetus to complete these projects.”
The projects cost money, and Baxter had a “rule of thumb” to pursue a rate increase of 20-25% roughly every four years, he said during a different 1975 oral history interview.
“Getting a rate increase isn’t just a matter of saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to increase your rates,’” Levine said. “You have to go through a whole process, and a lot of that is public relations.”
“In terms of the public health of the city, of the citizens, and the health of the rivers … he was very important to accomplishing those goals,” Levine added.
‘He was no saint’
Ask Floyd Platton, a 91-year-old resident of Fairmount about Sam Baxter, and you’ll get a less rosy picture.
“My report card on Baxter is mixed,” he said in an interview with PlanPhilly. “He was no saint.”
Platton joined the Water Department as personnel officer in 1962, and worked with Baxter to “professionalize” the department, bringing in more staff with graduate degrees in chemistry and sanitary, electrical, civil, and mechanical engineering, he said.
Outside of work, Platton was president of the Germantown Council for Community Control of Police, which formed in 1969 to oppose police brutality after a youth was “arrested and beaten” by police outside a dance in Germantown, according to an article that year in the Philadelphia Tribune.
“They were constantly harassing young Black kids,” Platton said.
Frank Rizzo was police commissioner at the time, and eventually got wind of Platton’s activism, Platton said.
“The next morning I got a call from Baxter, asking me to come to his office,” Platton remembered. “He received a call from Fred Corleto, who was managing director, and also from Rizzo himself, saying that I should be fired.”
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