Students from Camden’s Promise Charter School completed a three-year project creating floating wetlands and casting them off in Tippens Pond in Pennsauken on June 15, 2026.
The project, funded by a $12,000 grant from the New Jersey American Water Charitable Foundation, created floating platforms planted with native vegetation. The plant roots naturally filter out water pollutants by dangling in the water, absorbing excess nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen, trap sediment, and host beneficial microbes.
“It's an artificial raft for lack of a better word,” Jack Carr, Educational Outreach Provider for Camden’s Charter School Network, said. “Plants can grow in it. Imagine a giant sponge floating in a lake and plants growing out of it, and the plants improve water quality.”
Sean Quinn, NJ American Water Senior Program Manager, Source Water Protection, said that projects like this show their commitment to the environment and the community.
“The charitable foundation funds projects of all kinds of different sizes specifically through our water and in our environment grant because it shows our commitment to our consumers,” Quinn said. “It shows our commitments to our communities, and it also allows for us to give back to those communities that we have in our overall service areas so that we can help provide and improve the ecological health of our environments, ultimately work towards a more sustainable society and watershed.”