PHILADELPHIA — The Delaware River that flows between Camden, New Jersey and Philadelphia may be pretty to look at, but you’d be well advised against taking a swim in its polluted waters. It wasn’t always like this — the riverbed was once home to a flourishing community of mussels. In northeastern cities like Philadelphia and New York, industrial pollution did double damage by wiping out the little creatures that naturally filter rivers. When thriving, each one can purify up to 15 gallons of water a day.

As a part of Water Marks, Philadelphia Contemporary’s series on the Delaware River, artist Jean Shin is shining a light on the mussels’ story through Freshwater, an installation at Philadelphia’s Cherry Street Pier. Its centerpiece is a soaring fountain made of glass orbs containing live mussels born at the Fairmount Water Works mussel conservatory. Water from the Delaware river is piped up to the cavernous pier ceiling and allowed to trickle down through the vessels, where it’s filtered by Eastern pondmussels and alewife floaters, two of the 12 endangered mussel species native to the riverbed.

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