State awards low-interest loan to reduce sewage overflows to Mon and Ohio rivers

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has been awarded a $7.75 million state grant to lessen sewage overflows into local rivers.

It’s an issue previously flagged by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Wednesday announced grants and loans totaling $178 million for 14 drinking water, waste water, and stormwater projects across 11 counties.

“This continued focus on improving and investing in our infrastructure is vital for strong communities,” Wolf said. “Partnering with community leaders to make these investments, which ensure increased access to clean drinking water and provide stable environments for Pennsylvanians to work and live, is paramount to our regrowth as a commonwealth.”

For Allegheny County, the state awarded a $7.75 million low-interest PennVEST loan to re-line and repair about 7.4 miles of sewer lines in Brighton Heights, Hazelwood and Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes neighborhoods.

The faulty lines discharge waste water into the Monongahela and Ohio rivers. DEP and the authority made an agreement to reduce those discharges into the rivers.

The authority plans to insert liners in the faulty sewer lines, said authority spokeswoman Rebecca Zito.

“These improvements will indirectly help to reduce combined sewer overflows by reducing the amount of ground water and stormwater from leeching into our sewers,” she said.

The authority has used PennVEST funding in recent years to replace lead pipes and water main lines, she said.

“These low-interest loans reduce long-term costs to our ratepayers while providing adequate funding to advance PWSA’s capital improvement plan,” Zito said.

Funding for the projects comes from state funds approved by voters, Growing Greener, Marcellus Legacy funds, federal grants to PennVEST from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and recycled loan repayments from previous PennVEST funding awards.