The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority has received federal court approval to move ahead with its $2 billion-plus plan to remove 7 billion gallons of stormwater and sewage from rivers and streams in Allegheny County.
The modified consent decree alters, updates and expands a January 2008 federal consent order that required Alcosan to eliminate all illegal sanitary sewer discharges into the region’s rivers and streams and reduce sewage and storm water overflows from 153 combined sewer outfalls by 85%.
“This is the end of a very long, educational and exciting road,” said ALCOSAN Executive Director Arletta Scott Williams. “I’m pleased that the court and the plaintiffs agreed with our approach for improving the water quality of our rivers and streams, and we are all excited to continue forward with that important goal.”
The agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and the Allegheny County Health Department was approved by the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania Thursday and announced by Alcosan Friday.
The new consent decree allows the authority to implement its “Clean Water Plan,” formerly called its “Wet Weather Plan,” a strategy for reducing sewage overflows into rivers and streams almost event time it rains.
The new agreement extends the authority’s original deadline for fixing those overflows by a decade, to 2036. It also proposes building more than 15 miles of underground 14-foot-in-diameter storage tunnels along the city’s rivers to capture the overflows during storms.
During dry weather the stored stormwater and sewage would be released to flow to the Woods Run treatment facility, which is undergoing a $300 million expansion that will eventually double its treatment capacity.
The new plan does contain “adaptive management” language that will allow Alcosan the flexibility to use new technology as it becomes available and also add environmentally friendly “green infrastructure” components.
The plan’s goals are to reduce the amount of stormwater entering the combined sewer system, including through the use of green infrastructure such as bioswales, and roof and rain gardens.
Alcosan will also expand its conveyance system by adding pipes, diversion structures and tunnels, and it will regionalize its ownership of municipal trunk line sewers.
“With the anticipated addition of more than 200 miles of sewer infrastructure as Alcosan’s responsibility, the system will be more efficient and seamless and it will reduce some of the burden on municipalities,” the authority said in its Friday release.
Green infrastructure should become a major focus of the implementation plan, said Madeline Weiss, environmental justice organizer for Pittsburgh United, a community advocacy organization with a history of involvement in the sewer overflow issue.
“It's vital to keep green infrastructure solutions as the focus moving forward because it addresses multiple issues, like basement backups, flooding, landslides, and more,” Ms. Weiss said. “As we see more rain from a changing climate, we need to make investments that do more than just one thing. Green infrastructure has multiple community benefits and we as ratepayers have said time and again that we want those benefits.”
As additional data is collected and new technology is available, Ms. Weiss said Pittsburgh United expects Alcosan to make use of the adaptive management options allowed by the modified agreement. She cited recent information from the RAND Corp. that noted a significant increase in the amount of untreated stormwater flowing into area rivers due to a changing climate and more impermeable surfaces — roads, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks — in the urban landscape.
“The work being done right now by the RAND Corporation indicates that what is currently proposed is not enough to even solve the CSO [combined sewer overflow] issue, so Alcosan must pursue all the options available to protect our rivers and our communities,” Ms. Weiss said.“
Steve Hvozdovich, state campaign director for Clean Water Action, said it’s good that an agreement was reached but noted several shortcomings, including what he termed the “terribly troubling” decade-long extension to accomplish the overflow reductions.
“Our three rivers are an important part of this region, serving as a source of recreation and drinking,” Mr. Hvozdovich said. “So it's important that we correct this issue as soon as possible, especially since indications are that we're seeing increased rainfall and the problem has persisted for so long.”
He also said use of green infrastructure solutions should be a requirement instead of a suggestion, and cited Philadelphia as a city where green infrastructure use is creating “positive environmental and financial impacts.”
The modified consent decree was lodged with the court in September 2019 to allow for a 60-day public comment period.
Alcosan treats sewage wastewater for 83 Allegheny County communities, including the city of Pittsburgh. The authority’s 59-acre treatment plant processes up to 250 million gallons of wastewater daily, making it one of the largest such facilities in the Ohio River Valley.
More information about the authority’s Clean Water Plan, is available at www.alcosan.org
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983. Twitter: @donhopey.
First Published: May 15, 2020, 5:11 p.m.
