New utility could manage flood area
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Months before four people perished in the flash flood on Washington Boulevard, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority retained a consultant to determine if there's a better approach to handling storm-water runoff.
In May, the authority board awarded a $150,000 contract to Michael Baker Corp. to study the feasibility of creating a stormwater "district" or "authority."
The entity would manage stormwater for the city, if not the region, and give businesses financial incentives to use green roofs, permeable pavement and other measures to control runoff, said city Councilman Patrick Dowd, a water and sewer authority board member.
Mr. Dowd said the impetus for the study was two-fold: requirements that municipalities reduce sewage and stormwater runoff and the recognition that the built-up urban environment is contributing heavily to runoff.
The stormwater management authority could be a new entity, or the responsibilities could be assigned to an existing government, such as the water and sewer authority or city.
In 1999, the Philadelphia Water Department added an "Office of Watersheds" to address stormwater management, and Mr. Dowd and others said that's one model to consider.
"If you look around the country, where there's success in dealing with these issues, there is generally a stormwater utility involved," said John Schombert, executive director of 3 Rivers Wet Weather, a nonprofit that helps municipalities deal with sewage and stormwater runoff.
In his first extensive remarks since the flash flood, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl on Tuesday said he was "devastated" by the deaths and vowed to make Washington Boulevard safer, short-term and long-term.
Mr. Ravenstahl said the city already is planning for heavy rains Hurricane Irene might bring to Pittsburgh later this week and stressed that officials will err on the side of caution. If that means closing a road prematurely or unnecessarily, he said, so be it.
"Certainly, we're all devastated by the tragic events that took place on Washington Boulevard. ... It's our goal now, collectively, to find answers. There are still many questions that are unanswered at this point," he said.
Mr. Ravenstahl declined to speculate on the causes of the flash flood, which the water and sewer authority and Allegheny County Sanitary Authority have blamed on the amount of rainfall, not the quality of their systems.
However, he said improvements -- a process for quickly closing the road during storms, road reconstruction, drainage upgrades or some combination of those things -- will be made.
First Published August 24, 2011 12:00 am
