Pittsburgh's Plan for Combating Rising Flood Waters

Tom Batroney, Senior Technical Director at AKRF and a civil and water resources engineer for the Pittsburgh region, saw firsthand how dire the situation became.

"I’ll never forget I was driving with my wife down Banksville Road," recalls Batroney. "It’s known for flooding. I said to my wife, 'we need to get out of here now.'" 15 minutes later, that part of the road they had been on was under water, and people who'd taken a chance and driven through it needed to be rescued.

"All throughout Pittsburgh people have a story like that," says Batroney. And he would know. Batroney regularly attends town hall meetings as part of his job, and notes the growing aggravation of locals around the region's flooding problem, and the lack of unifying support from government authorities. "People are really upset, and they’re right to be upset," he says. "It’s been happening for too long. They want to see concrete, actionable progress." Last year, Batroney started The Pittsburgh Urban Flooding Journal, where he's archived the area's flooding history. He even created a map that indicates reported street flooding.

Several communities have put together grassroots efforts to address localized flooding over the years, but they tend to fizzle out without financial or political backing. And since Allegheny County is made up of 130 municipalities, the only way to successfully tackle the widespread flooding issue is by unifying the various efforts.

The Pittsburgh Sewer and Water Authority is beginning to do just that by spearheading an Integrated Watershed Management Plan. Right now, it's a partnership with just the 11 municipalities across the Saw Mill Run Watershed and watersheds of South Pittsburgh, which are some of the most flood-prone in Allegheny County.

"The integrated plan focuses on reducing peak water quantity issues (managing stormwater runoff), improving water quality (such as reducing sediment, phosphorus, acid mine drainage, bacteria) and reducing sewer overflows," Rebecca Zito, Communications Project Manager for the PWSA, writes in an email.

In order to mitigate flooding in the Four Mile Run Watershed, a densely populated part of Pittsburgh, the PWSA is creating a natural channel to help route runoff water away from homes and into the Monongahela River.

They've also enlisted the help of the federal government. "In the Negley Run Watershed, we have partnered with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to design a flood mitigation project along Washington Boulevard," says Zito. This is a significant step forward because 75% of the project is funded by the Army Corp, and the financial assistance may help the PWSA establish a dedicated funding source for future stormwater projects.

That said, there are still a number of challenges ahead for PWSA in addressing the Pittsburgh region's flooding problem. One of the most significant is budget. "Funding for stormwater management projects currently comes from our sewer conveyance charge, which is based on water usage," says Zito. "The stormwater fee, if approved, would base the charge on impervious surface (a unit of measure used by many cities throughout the country) and create a dedicated funding source for capital projects and operations needed to manage our stormwater program."

Next is maintaining the newly created stormwater infrastructure and making repairs and replacing older parts of the sewer system. Since this is an ongoing job, it goes hand-in-hand with securing a more substantial budget.

But perhaps most important is the challenge of uniting the communities of Allegheny County behind a well-managed effort to keep flooding in check across all flood-prone areas. "When you have 129 other nearby communities, everybody needs to get on the same page. The water doesn’t follow political boundaries," says Batroney.

"It’s time for all those communities and the Pittsburgh region as a whole to come together to address this issue as one," he continues. "Right now that table doesn’t exist. There needs to be a commitment and dedication from everyone in the region."