A Community Blazing a New Trail to Clean Water

Penn State landscape architecture faculty train a new generation of students to tackle stormwater issues with green infrastructure

The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority plans to spend more than $2 billion to build miles of new underground tunnels, and to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant. Some clean river advocates are pushing for alternatives, like green infrastructure. We begin our series Ripple Effects: Water Pollution & New Solutions with a look at the debate over sewage in the waterways.

Pennsylvania's climate change forecast is wet. More frequent and increasingly intense storms than in the past are expected. One community which has already faced devastating floods is finding that a particular kind of green infrastructure called a bioswale could be part of the solution.

Central Appalachia’s watersheds face a wide variety of serious challenges to their health, including sedimentation, heavy metal contamination, stormwater runoff, and high levels of human waste in streams.

Across Utah, utility crews are an in an uphill battle to maintain and modernize water delivery systems. From the desert community of St. George, to verdant Cache Valley, Utah’s water infrastructure is a complex network of old and new piping with old and new billing systems used to pay for it.