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Pittsburgh Water & Sewer
Authority gets $21 million for work
By Allison M.
Heinrichs New water and sewer lines soon will be installed throughout Pennsylvania, including in Allegheny County communities with problem sewers. The state will offer $411 million in low-interest loans and $119 million in grants to pay for the work, through the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority's first round of federal stimulus money. The projects are expected to begin this summer. The Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority received a $10.8 million loan to improve its water treatment plant and water storage and distribution system. The authority received another $10.3 million loan to replace or fix more than 4 miles of sewer lines in an effort to eliminate sewage discharge into the Allegheny, Ohio and Monongahela rivers. The authority serves 196,000 customers, and upgrades to its aging infrastructure will ensure continued service, said Executive Director Michael Kenney. The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority received an $11.8 million loan to upgrade the McKees Rocks pump station and install nearly a mile of storm sewers to keep rainwater from overwhelming the system. "We were very pleased to receive the money," said Alcosan spokeswoman Nancy Barylak. "Certainly we would like more money, but there was the problem with the fact that everything had to be shovel-ready and we're still two years out with our design." In the next 20 years, Alcosan has to complete up to $50 billion in federally mandated improvements to comply with environmental laws. Apollo received a $7 million grant — one of the largest — for the first phase of a two-phase project to install a sewer system that will separate storm and sanitary sewers. Doing so will eliminate overflow of untreated sewage into the Kiskiminetas River. "It's wonderful news to us," said Lori Weig-Tamasy, the borough's secretary-treasurer. "We've been working with an infrastructure that's upwards of 100 years old, so it's an absolutely necessary project." Other projects: • Pennsylvania American Water Co., $2.1 million loan to install water lines in its Pittsburgh district and a $12.1 million loan to construct water lines and a 350,000-gallon storage tank in Mt. Pleasant in Washington County; • Westmoreland County Municipal Authority, $4.8 million loan to replace water lines in Greensburg; • Baden in Beaver County, $2.4 million loan to construct water lines; • Beaver Falls Municipal Authority, $9.2 million loan to construct a water intake and replace water lines; • Ambridge Borough Municipal Authority, $5.7 million grant to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant; • Charleroi Borough Authority, $4.8 million loan to construct a water-booster station, transmission main, 500,000-gallon storage tank and interconnection with North Charleroi; • Independence-Cross Creek Joint Sewer Authority in Washington County, $3.7 million loan and $11.7 million grant to build a wastewater treatment plant and collection sewers; • Monongahela City Municipal Authority in Washington County, $3.5 million loan to build a pump station and sewer lines. Allison M. Heinrichs can be reached at aheinrichs@tribweb.com or 412-380-5607.
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