Alcosan is poised to spend billions of dollars in an effort to stop the discharge of raw sewage into area rivers during heavy rain. But at a gathering Wednesday night of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network at Shadyside’s Rodef Shalom Temple, there were new concerns about who would be getting the shaft.
The drop shaft, that is.
Alcosan is under pressure from federal regulators to reduce sewage overflows. But environmentalists have been critical of its proposed solution, which features massive underground tunnels to store water until Alcosan’s Woods Run treatment plant can process it. And at the PIIN gathering, foes of the plan displayed a draft map of a tunnel network around the Point — along with up to 18 “drop shafts.”
The shafts will connect existing sewers to the tunnels, more than 100 feet underground. An Alcosan spokeswoman said that while the map is far from a final plan, digging each shaft could temporarily require a construction site of “a couple acres.”
Without such a map, “people haven’t conceptualized what’s going to happen,” said Jennifer Kennedy, Clean Rivers Campaign executive director.
The audience cheered an assurance by Kevin Acklin, Mayor Bill Peduto’s chief of staff, who pledged the city would fight — in court, if need be — for more green solutions such as rain gardens, reducing the need for large-scale infrastructure projects.
Mr. Acklin later said he was “very concerned” by the project envisioned by the map: “You’re not going to dig up our riverfronts and put drop-shafts in our neighborhoods.”
Like aging sewer systems across the country, Alcosan is plagued by "combined sewer overflows." Older sewers carry both sewage and rainwater in the same pipe network, and heavy rain can overwhelm them: When that happens, sewage and stormwater alike end up in the rivers. Modern sewer systems carry sewage and stormwater in separate pipes, eliminating the overflow threat.
Mr. Acklin said he met earlier this week with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice and told them that without a greener focus, Pittsburgh would not convey its sewer “trunk lines” to Alcosan.
Such lines carry waste water from multiple municipalities.
Having them under Alcosan’s control is considered a key part of a sewer fix.
“If that means we end up in court over this issue … then that’s where we’ll end up,” he said.
Jeanne Clark, an Alcosan spokeswoman, said Mr. Acklin’s position “is new.” Alcosan treats waste water from 83 municipalities, she noted, adding, “I don’t know how the other municipalities will react” to Mr. Acklin’s position.
As for the map, Ms. Clark said, “None of that is set in stone.”
The number of shafts and their locations won’t be determined for years, she said, and construction won’t begin until the 2020s. “We've got years of planning and design to do.”
Activists, though, are already planning to hold a demonstration along the Allegheny River this morning to call attention to the drop shaft issue. The message, Ms. Kennedy said, will be, “This belongs to the public.”
Chris Potter: cpotter@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2533.
First Published: November 19, 2015, 5:10 a.m.