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Documentary On Philadelphia Going Green Highlights Bold Environmental Initiative

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Philadelphia Museum of Art is set to host a local film premiere Wednesday night that highlights a bold environmental initiative.

The film, Water Blues, Green Solutions, is the second water-related documentary out of Penn State Public Media. It focuses on four cities with different water management problems and one is Philadelphia, which filmmaker Frank Christopher says has been going all-in to try to control storm runoff that causes flooding and pollution.

He says it's the old carrot and stick approach.

"For example, in Philadelphia, they do a lot of incentivizing by giving grants to homeowners for the construction of rain gardens and businesses for green roofs, but they also have something called a storm water tax on the amount of impervious surface, that's roofs or asphalt or sidewalks."

The film also focuses on Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Tex.; and the Bronx, but there's a web site where you can pick and choose your content.  For more information, click here or visit: http://waterblues.org/explore/stories

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