Pittsburgh Water Awarded $13.6 Million PENNVEST Loan: About 600 Aging Catch Basins to Be Replaced
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) voted at its board meeting on October 21 to award a $13.6 million low-interest loan to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) in Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, to replace approximately 600 catch basins across the city.
According to a joint announcement by state Senators Jay Costa, Lindsey Williams and Wayne Fontana, PWSA will replace existing open-throat basins with standard Type 13 grate structures, limiting the debris, including solids and floatables, conveyed to the sewer. PWSA owns approximately 22,600 catch basins and inlets in its service area, many beyond their service life and failing, with a significant backlog of known issues; the sewer infrastructure to be replaced is approximately 100 years old. The system serves 104,017 residential customers with a population of 307,632, in an area whose median household income is below the state median.
The announcement said the low-interest loan will provide a grant equivalent of about $7.7 million over the life of the loan, and that without the extended term, user fees would be expected to increase by an additional one percent. Fontana said that since his legislation allowing local municipal water authorities to access state funding became law in 2017, over $600 million in grants and loans have come to Allegheny County for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure. Williams said replacing the aging basins will protect roadways, eliminate ponding water, reduce landslides and keep flooding out of basements. (GSM, based on the Pennsylvania Senate Democrats' announcement)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 匹兹堡 Duquesne Incline 缆车实景资料图。图片：Dllu，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh, file photo. Photo: Dllu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
