PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/category/environment/page/2/)
Two weeks ago, tests showed that the drinking water from Coraopolis Water and Sewer Authority contained some of the highest levels of PFAS chemicals found in the 96 water sources tested throughout the the state. The authority's board approved an expense of $5,000 to pay for additional testing of its drinking water.
Huntington is one of a dozen levee systems in the basin that the Corps of Engineers classifies as a “high risk” due to the combination of aging infrastructure and the people and property that would be harmed if the system were to fail. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates aging levee systems like these across the country will need $80 billion in upgrades within the next decade.
To slow the flow, residents have adopted the idea of strategic depaving. Depaving, or removing unnecessary pavement, creates the opportunity for more greenspace and makes it more likely that rainwater would be absorbed rather than entering the outdated infrastructure.
Drinking water from the Coraopolis Water and Sewer Authority showed PFAS contamination among the highest levels found in the state, though still below the federal health advisory level, according to test results released Thursday by the Department of Environmental Protection [DEP].
At a sewer conference in November, an ALCOSAN study hinted at how it may be able to spend the remaining $1.9 billion. The preliminary results of the study indicates that out of all of the remaining investment, an estimated $29 million in planned pipes could be converted to green infrastructure for about the same cost or cheaper.
Projects currently on the drawing board would unleash a flood of newly manufactured plastic from the region, using raw materials from fracked shale gas wells.
Over the years, the City of Pittsburgh has been supportive of cycling. Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, who’s been pejoratively called “Bike Lane Billy,” wants to get more residents out of cars and on bicycles. “A 21st century city is a multi-modal city,” Peduto said in a 2017 debate during his reelection campaign. “It is a city that is designed for cars and bikes and pedestrians, and public transit, and not simply the automobile. That’s 1950s.”
