4 MILE RUN WATERSHED PROJECT 24 January 2017, 6pm-8pm University of Pittsburgh Alumni Hall (This is a rough summary of the meeting, including presenters, general big picture, and Q/A section. I attended as a local resident with limited familiarity with this process; please do your own research and attend future meetings for more information!) Representatives from: -Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy (Heather Sage) -Pittsburgh City Council (Corey O'Connor, District 5 Rep) -PWSA rep (James?) -Phronesis, independent planning firm (Tim Duggan) Opening remarks: Sage: introduction to the project, referencing the regional parks master plan; the focus of this project from the PPC's perspective is panther hollow lake. recent work along beacon street and the bob o'connor golf course included stormwater retention systems. overall goal is to manage sewer overflow during rainstorms, reduce basement flooding in homes in the run. O'Connor: stressed unfairness to residents in the run to have to deal with stormwater/sewer overflow due to poor stormwater management uphill, city plays a role in funding this project, allocated thousands of dollars for initial planning process, intends to push city to invest in and prioritize green infrastructure PWSA: acknowledged street/basement flooding, sediment in lakes and parks, street degradation; these are currently being managed as independent problems around the city, which is costly and inefficient because over overlapping work; all of these problems are a symptom of a larger issue, which is excess stormwater. prioritizing projects that are low risk, easy to implement, have high human activity, multiple benefits; old system was to have stormwater all drain to a single point, and manage that single point; in this case, this happens to be the run, which affect residents. "there's no magical place called 'away'"; funneling excess water somewhere else just makes it someone else's problem; wants to create a comprehensive plan that pools lots of different funding sources, agencies, resources, etc. Main Presentation: http://phronesis.us/?portfolio=schenley-park-green-infrastructure-concept-plan Tim Duggan, landscape architect from phronesis Prioritize green infrastructure that supports "catalytic community redevelopment"; things to consider is that this is a public project (so it should be affordable), create local workforce opportunities, increase riverfront connections, support complete streets, build a walkable community, resilient to future changes; showed maps of historic waterways, identifying schenley drive and forbes avenue as areas of high drainage, looking at using pervious pavement for road surfaces to soak up rainwater, build bioswales, all with opportunity for complete streets implementation. current assessment is 80 million gallons of 'clean' rainwater going straight into the sewer system, which gets processed as dirty. opportunities for ecological restoration, restoring historic streams and wetlands around panther hollow lake (current stormwater infrastructure does not make use of the parks). design a stormwater capture infrastructure that allows collection of data to study ecosystem, weather, biology, experimental space. possible goal is to remove squirrel hill stormwater entirely from existing sewer system Q/A: Q: Will this solution prevent flooding at, say, Big Jim's? A: No model can 100% answer this; current assessment is that there's the potential to remove 19 million gallons of stormwater from estimated 23 gallons of stormwater that comes through that area, which should greatly alleviate pressure on the existing CSO system. Q: Are those gallon figures annual? A: [I missed the technical explanation; the gist is that they're units used to measure the overall capacity of the system, but annual fluctuations due to climate events/change will affect specific numbers. So, they're more like coefficients.] Q: How does this plan interact with the Almono site? A: Not speaking for them because they're not present, but they have expressed interest in being involved. (audience comment): Knowing them historically, they have not showed any interest in contributing financially. A: They've come to us directly, so they haven't been avoiding this. Q: How will this impact park use (commute-walking through Schenley), what sort of timeline for that impact? A: Primary construction will be in the under-utilized vegetated area, probably not impacting pedestrians as much as you think, when completed, would promote walking even more. Q: What about playground impact? Also, what about PennDOT's involvement? A: Project is open for any sort of reconstruction of the area, including playground space. A2 (O'Connor): PennDOT historically hates dealing with stormwater; currently, all their storm overflow pipes from their roads drain into PGH city system, they haven't been working with this project. Q: [I missed most of this question, but it was about raising a previous concern about a potential roadway built through the run] A: Our focus is on creating green infrastructure in the area, not transit; that's out of scope for this conversation. [Later, I caught some casual discussion about how going through with a strong green public works infrastructure here before potential roadway development can get underway would secure the run as a road-free space.] Q: These old green lanes were mined, what does that mean for using it as a waterway? A: Avoid introducing high volumes of water all at once, monitor to check for pollutants (planning for both quantity and quality of water) Q: Has there been monitoring on the Beacon St./golf course project? A: Don't know, but aware of issues with quality on some of the bioswales, undersized, etc. (audience comment): [some mumbling about specific problems in some of the bioswales] A2 (Sage): UPitt currently monitoring, a particular area was not spec'd properly, data showed it and allowed adjustments, research team currently in the process of summarizing data. (audience comment): Site used to be a dump site for slag, which has been buried. Q: Who owns the railways in the area, and are they involved? A: CSX/Allegheny Rail, they have been contacted and asked about their preferred crossing at Panther Hollow, they prefer underground rather than above the rail. Q: Why are there sewer backups in my house? A: PGH has combined sewer/rainwater system, so when clean rainwater overflows the sewer, it pushes sewage back out of the pipes. Q: Will this benefit my house, which is at the top of the run? A: Would have to look at your specific situation; clean water act means reducing this sort of backup ("life safety issue"), but a valley will always have drainage problems. Q: You mentioned a daylighted stream; what's the process for EPA/DEP process/permitting? A: Permitting will definitely happen, this will involve a lot of paperwork. A2 (audience, local stream ecologist): Depends on the degree to which this project results in a natural stream; if it's just a stormwater passage, probably not, but if we're talking about creating a wetlands with natural growth and bugs and fish etc. then it will have to go through an extensive permitting system; personally would love to create a new, real stream. Q: What's the funding process? Who leads the project? A: Mixed group, mostly PWSA, includes Alcosan, the community; currently looking at junction hollow/panther hollow lake as first and prioritized phase. Closing Remarks: -This is all just a concept, presented to inform the community of what's involved and what options are out there. Slips were distributed for people to sign on in support. Other Links: http://www.pittsburghparks.org/projects/four-mile-run http://pgh2o.com/City-Wide-Green-Plan http://apps.pittsburghpa.gov/pwsa/6.2_M29_Four_Mile_Run.pdf The PPC is in the process of putting together a centralized website with more information and progress updates.