7 day forecast
Pittsburgh sewer upgrades could cost more than $200 million
Share with others:
The city of Pittsburgh and upstream municipalities could have to pay as much as $277 million to meet federal and state requirements for controlling sewer overflows and storm flooding, Pittsburgh City Council learned at a special meeting today.
The city and Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority's share could range from $111 million to $213 million, depending on how the municipalities decide to apportion costs and the types of upgrades officials decide to make, according to the report by authority engineers.
Allegheny County Sanitary Authority and dozens of municipalities face federal or state requirements for controlling sanitary and stormwater sewer runoff. Today's report focused on work to be borne by the city, PWSA and an unspecified number of upstream municipalities.
Capital projects mainly would include construction or expansion of sewer lines to increase the city's carrying capacity to the Alcosan system. A final plan for meeting the mandates must be presented to regulators by next July, and improvements would be completed by about 2026.
City Councilman Bill Peduto said meeting the mandates will be the greatest public works project of the era. Councilman Patrick Dowd said funding the improvements will be a challenge.
"We can't ask ratepayers to pay what they can't afford," Mr. Dowd said.
First Published July 18, 2012 3:23 pm
