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Our partners at Pittsburgh United and the Clean Rivers Campaign are organizing a public meeting to discuss something terrible in the works: a plan that would leave thousands of low-income residents of Allegheny County holding a massive sewer bill, with no relief in sight.
The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) intends to pay for a poorly-planned and hugely expensive stormwater management overhaul by raising their customers’ sewer bills by 60% over the next 4 years. They offer no program to help low-income customers afford these rate hikes.
As a result, tens of thousands of low-income, senior, and disabled households unable to pay their bills will likely face water shutoffs, just like in Detroit.
Is an overhaul needed?
Absolutely. ALCOSAN treats the sewage of Pittsburgh and 82 other municipalities and its system is polluting our rivers.
Here’s why. Hard impermeable surfaces – like the parking lots and the paved sites of retail and manufacturing plants – block rainwater from being absorbed into the ground. Instead, it becomes stormwater run-off.
Older municipal sewer systems like ours typically combine this run-off with “wastewater” aka the sewage or used water that comes from homes, businesses, and manufacturing plants. ALCOSAN’s combined stormwater and wastewater system is so overloaded that only 1/10 of an inch of rainwater will flood it, dumping its contents – sewage and all – into our rivers.
The same rivers that 90% of our residents rely on for drinking water. Those storm- and wastewater contents? Harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, pharmaceuticals, synthetic hormones, heavy metals, petroleum products, trash, and sediment.
As a result, ALCOSAN has been under court order since 2008 to comply with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s rules on combined sewer overflows.
What’s the plan?
ALCOSAN’s plan to fix this serious environmental and health hazard will require billions of dollars over the next 20 years. They want to build giant underground tunnels – “gray” infrastructure – to hold excess storm-water. It would be the largest public infrastructure project in the city and county’s history.
ALCOSAN intends to finance the plan with huge rate hikes for households even though our homes don’t create much run-off. It’s the big box stores, parking lots and businesses that do. Worse, ALCOSAN has no plan to offer a consumer assistance program to help low-income households pay their increased bills the way other county utilities do.
What’s the alternative?
A coalition of different organizations and activists through Pittsburgh United’s Clean Rivers Campaign is proposing a different stormwater plan. This green infrastructure plan would fix our sewer system and keeps our rivers clean by building permeable streets and sidewalks, green roofs, rain gardens, and using similarly green solutions to manage rainwater where it falls so that it never enters the system.
This plan would actually create more (and more permanent) jobs, improve air quality, beautify our communities and increase property values, and would be more affordable for low-income households.
There is a solution. A green one. We just need our local elected officials to know that it’s the one we want.
Any new plan should:
- Establish a Customer Assistance Program: A Customer Assistance Program (CAP) is needed for those who will be unable to pay their increased sewer charges.
- Develop Smart Solutions: Ones that put the investments in neighborhoods and jobs.
- Require Businesses to Pay their Fair Share: Residents could have their water shut off if they can’t afford their skyrocketing sewer rates, while big box stores and malls don’t pay their fair share for the run-off they are producing.
What you can do
Join us on Tuesday, November 18th for a town hall meeting to help move this plan forward!
If you would like to speak at the meeting about how a significant increase to your sewer bill would affect you, please contact our community organizer Maria Muzzie at [email protected] or (412) 431-8960 x114.
You can learn more about the wastewater problem, ALCOSAN’s plan, and better solutions for our communities at cleanriverscampaign.org.
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