By SHANNON O. WELLS
Among elements most associated with Pittsburgh — Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, a bevy of unique bridges, several universities, French fries on sandwiches — the scenically striking confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to form the mighty Ohio might be the city’s key physical trademark.
As crucial as the three rivers are to the evolution and continued vitality to the city, however, when it comes their viability as far as fishing and human immersion, aka “swimmability,” well, it’s complicated.
Despite great strides in reducing pollution sources since its 20th century industrial heyday, Greater Pittsburgh’s commercial history, severe topography, and political and governmental complexities conspire to make maintaining recreational water quality a significant and ongoing challenge.
Dan Bain, associate professor of geology and environmental science in the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences, recently highlighted the topic of Pittsburgh river water quality in an article he contributed to the Pittsburgh Courier, “Should you swim in Pittsburgh’s rivers?”
The city, he wrote, has inherited hundreds of sewer overflow points throughout the three rivers via “hundreds of points in the sewer network, where heavy rain pushes a mixture of stormwater and raw sewage directly into the water.”
The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) has said overflows can occur with as little as a tenth of an inch of rain.
“I would say it’s the worst case,” Bain said of Pittsburgh in an interview with the University Times. “It’s a question of the sheer amount of infrastructure you have to overcome. That goes back to a political decision which we can’t unmake.
“A lot of these different (sanitary sewer) overflows are overseen by different boroughs. It’s not like you can have one person in charge of the sewer district say, ‘OK, clean that up, clean that up, clean that up.’ You have to go find the borough manager, convince the borough manager and hope that happens in the two to six years that borough manager continues to serve.
Boroughs, he explained, don’t have a huge tax base. “They don’t have a huge capital budget. So, I would say it’s a worst case. I’m sure people would argue that their local (river) is the worst case. Is there any other city that even has 100 (annual) overflows? Maybe Cincinnati.”
In his Courier article, Bain, whose field work with the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory tracks changes in the city’s streams and rivers over time, shared an anecdote from a TV news segment revealing Pittsburgh Steelers offensive guard Gennings Dunker’s ambivalent desire to swim and fish in local rivers.
“I had to ask around if I could swim in the river. You’re not supposed to do that,” Dunker said with a grin in the TV segment. “I might go fishin’.”
Bain went on to emphasize that Pennsylvania citizens’ constitutional right to “fishable, swimmable waterways” is a standard Pittsburgh’s celebrated three rivers “have not always met.”
The technical designation for swimmable waters, he noted, is decided by regulators — primarily the Environmental Protection Agency and Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection — who estimate contamination thresholds above which swimming poses a meaningful health risk.
“Below those thresholds, a body of water is considered safe,” Bain wrote, “though individuals still make their own calculations.”
A Swim Guide managed by Three Rivers Waterkeeper provides results of ongoing tests to determine harmful pollution levels — including bacteria from combined sewer overflows including E. coli and types of coliform, which can cause illness if ingested. Based on the EPA threshold for recreational water quality standards, if more than two colonies of bacteria are present, the water is labeled as unsafe for recreation at that time.
Progress and setbacks
Bain doesn’t hesitate to acknowledge how the water quality of area rivers has improved since the Pittsburgh region’s steel manufacturing and coal processing heyday of the early and mid-20th century.
Fifty years ago, a fish population survey from Braddock Locks, one of nine water flow-regulating structures of the Monongahela River, resulted in but one solitary fish. A follow-up survey in 2010, however, netted more than 23,000 fish, including 32 different species.
Although fish populations alone don’t determine whether a river is safe for swimming, Bain called that recovery “significant.”
“It’s amazing to me, and it’s one of the things you’ve got to take home from this is how quickly it has gotten better,” he said. “I mean, it’s not to where it needs to be, but (in the lock survey) that amount of growth over 50 years means something good is happening. Something is going well.”
He called changes in coal mining regulations and citizen action regarding “legacy” coal mining impacts “big victories” for Western Pennsylvania.
“We still have some really big overflows that a group of 100 Trout Unlimited members can’t solve with like pickaxes and shovels,” he observed. “That was actually one of the things that was going to come with the BIL (Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill) during the Biden administration. Actually, some of those got clawed back.
“We were gearing up to take a big step about two years ago, three years ago now, and that’s really sort of evaporated, which is not great.”
Into the right hands
Bain’s passion for studying Pittsburgh area water quality centers on his involvement with the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory.
Launched in 2017 with a group of faculty members, including Bain, the organization sought to “bridge the gap” between what was happening in research at Pitt and what the community and watershed groups needed “to help accelerate the promotion of better water quality in our region,” noted Megan Lange, the collaboratory’s engagement programs manager.
With its initial funding, the collaboratory held a series of meetings with watershed organizations, agencies, nonprofit organizations and industry representatives with the goal of asking, “‘What research gaps do you see, and how can we as a University be a better partner for that?’” she said. “From there we identified a lot of research gaps and potential projects and started building relationships with regional water advocates in the region.
“Since then, it’s kind of become a bigger and better force of nature here at the University, where we are able to really expose students to these great community partners and be able to do research in tandem with them, but making sure the research that we provide is high quality (and) going into hands that truly need it and can advance their initiatives on their end.”
In addition to Three Rivers Waterkeeper, the collaboratory includes local groups like Watersheds of South Pittsburgh and Upstream Pittsburgh along with agencies such as the Pennsylvania DEP, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and various industry and consulting firms.
“It really gives students a great opportunity to do hands-on research, but also that can benefit the greater community and amplify the water resources we have here,” Lange said. “Over the years, it’s changed and evolved … and now we’re an official center here at Pitt.”
A goal of the collaboratory, she added, is to expand beyond its initial earth sciences scope into the “many disciplines that water touches” across the University “whether that be social sciences, physical sciences, engineering, health.”
“We’re just trying to be a resource for people to come together and learn what each other are doing and making sure that the research that is happening is getting into the right hands.”
‘Long march’ continues
Based on the multiple sewer overflow points along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, Bain said the potential for exposure to raw sewage makes waterways in the ALCOSAN service area “unswimmable” for at least 48 hours after rainstorms.
Some better-known consequences of this phenomenon include the swimming segment of the Pittsburgh Triathalon being swapped for a bike leg, following an overflow in 2002. In 2016, the triathlon became a “duathlon,” with the swimming portion being canceled entirely.
Even during dry stretches, Pittsburgh’s rivers “carry the legacy of their industrial past,” Bain wrote in his article. Abandoned coal mines and slag piles — mountains of waste from steel, mining and coal operations — contribute dissolved materials to southwestern Pennsylvania waters.
Their risks to a swimmer, however, aren’t well understood, he noted.
Clearer direction is available regarding the consumption of fish from the three rivers. Pennsylvania issues specific advisories on how much fish from a given stretch of river can be safely ingested. These advisories account for lingering contaminations after rain events, Bain noted.
Although ALCOSAN, through sewer infrastructure improvements, is working toward making overflows rare, the planning horizon for these efforts stretches to 2046.
“The original consent decree that Alcosan got was from 2008, so it’s spanned many, many different administrations at this point to come to fruition,” he told the University Times. “They’re digging the first tunnels now, so it’s decades in the planning.”
Despite the current presidential administration’s de-emphasis on environmental regulation, Bain expressed confidence that EPA mandates for cities to contain their antiquated, inadequate wastewater systems will continue going forward.
“I’m not saying you couldn’t stop all clean water regulation right now … but I’m also saying that the EPA, God love them, tends to be particularly tenacious against state and local governments,” he said, noting that more recent maneuvers to lessen Clean Water Act guidelines tend to exclude cities. “So, this long march towards cleaner water is not interrupted as of yet, and I don’t expect it to because it’s another way to punish the cities.
“At this point, I don’t think a single administration would be able to turn that bus around, in theory,” he added. “But it’s been a long time coming.”
Shannon O. Wells is a writer for the University Times. Reach him at shannonw@pitt.edu.
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