Up <i>what</i> creek?

You don't have to live in the city's verdant Northwest neighborhoods – like Germantown, Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill – to be alarmed by allegations that the Monoshone Creek is being polluted by human waste.

And that worried Monoshone advocates are placing the blame on – gulp – the city's Water Department.

The Monoshone (pronounced mon-o-SHOW-nee) is a recreational stream that runs beneath Lincoln Drive; resurfaces at Historic Rittenhouse Town; runs aboveground on the west side of the drive; flows into the trout-stocked Wissahickon; then empties into the Schuylkill River at the site of the Philadelphia Canoe Club.

It's said to contribute 16 percent of the water for the Queen Lane Water Treatment facility, the source of northwest Philadelphia's drinking water.

The pollution allegations stem from the fact that the Monoshone runs through a series of  "outfalls" – four-foot-wide pipes that deliver stormwater runoff into the creek at several locations. For years now, creek-watchers have noticed – and testing has confirmed - that the stormwater is often laced with human sewage, and they've been trying to find out why.

Theories abound, but Chris Robinson, head of the Northwest Greens neighborhood group (which is not affiliated with the Greens political party), posits two that he says experts find most possible:

Perhaps old soil lines that run near the outfalls have cracked and are seeping sewage into the relatively clean stormwater.

Or, perhaps, contractors installing new bathrooms into businesses or residences in the area are incorrectly hooking new soil lines into the outfall pipes, instead of into the city's sewer lines.

Or maybe both scenarios are playing out.

In every scenario, Robinson and others contend, it is the responsibility of the Water Department to address the problem and resolve it.

What's not debated is that concern is growing, as evidenced by a packed meeting last July, in which a representative of City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller met with worried advocates and promised to bring the issue to the mayor's attention.

Which brings us to the point of this post: There will be a big meeting early next month to follow-up on the allegations presented to Miller's office.

When: Tuesday, Dec. 9th, at 7pm.

Where: The Cecilian Center for Earth, Arts and Spirit, 100 Carpenter Ln. (at Cresheim Rd.) in West Mount Airy.

Who's in charge: The meeting will be chaired by Michael Quintero-Moore, special assistant to City Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller, and attended by representatives from the Mayor's office, Managing Director's office and Water Department.

Who's invited: Everyone.

For more information: Call Chris Robinson at 215-843-4256, or email nwgreens@yahoo.com