• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

10/18/2015 City ­ Pittsburgh Post­Gazette Saw Mill Run: Alongside congested Route 51, glimmers of a living stream October 18, 2015 12:00 AM By Diana Nelson Jones / Pittsburgh Post­Gazette If you could hit a “pause” button on the roar of traffic along Saw Mill Run Boulevard, say at the top of the Midwood Avenue steps in Overbrook, you would hear the lapping, trickling sounds of a parallel universe. To hear it otherwise, and to see it, you have to descend the steps. With few opportunities to witness Saw Mill Run, all most people know is that it floods. With its floodplains hemmed in and water quality compromised by pollutants, the stream in heavy rains often rushes over its banks and gets our attention. Storm Water Management along Saw The Saw Mill Run Watershed Association wants it Mill Run to hold our attention by altering conditions that make it destructive. The association is an offshoot of Economic Development South, a 4­year­old non­ profit that works on community development projects in seven municipalities and four city neighborhoods. It has identified 10 sites where stormwater could best be deterred and redirected. The association Lisa Brown of the Saw Mill Run Watershed Association gives a tour of several sites along the stream that are will take the public on a free bus tour of sites targeted for storm water management measures. (Video Thursday, for which reservations are due by by Rebecca Droke;10/17/15) tomorrow. (See end of story for details.) The 22­mile stream begins in Bethel Park and ends at the Ohio River in the West End. Twelve municipalities lie in its watershed. Twenty­two homes used to lie in one of its floodplains. Their access from the http://www.post­gazette.com/local/city/2015/10/18/Saw­Mill­Run­Alongside­congested­Route­51­glimmers­of­a­living­stream/stories/201510180093.print 1/5 10/18/2015 City ­ Pittsburgh Post­Gazette boulevard was Ansonia Place, a stubby dead end bridge street that now ends at a wooded wetland established in 1996. That year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency bought out the Ansonia Place properties, with a 25 percent fund match from the city. That land became a natural floodplain, abounding in cattails. The stream needs more such sites, where the creek can overflow its banks without causing any harm, said Lisa Brown, coordinator of the watershed association. The water under the Ansonia Place bridge swayed and pooled around large rocks on a recent visit. “How would you know something so beautiful could be down (Click image for larger version) here?” she said. “We have to take the opportunities we can to acquire land and create connections between people and this stream. If folks can’t connect physically, how can they care about it? Communities are vitally important to repairing the damage done.” Heavy traffic and a turning restriction make Ansonia Place hard to get to. The stream at Midwood Street is accessible only to pedestrians who take the steps to the South Bank T station. There, the creek rushes the way urbanites think streams sound only in the wild. The least difficult points of access are Seldom Seen Greenway in Beechview and Wabash Park in the West End. Seldom Seen offers the most aesthetic setting, but making the water accessible is the goal throughout the watershed. Ms. Brown spent six years working with the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association. The restoration of that creek through Frick Park nine years ago changed how people regarded it. “Nobody calls it Stink Creek anymore,” she said. “It’s now ‘Wow, Nine Mile Run!’ ” — a highly visible stream because of Frick Park’s heavy use. http://www.post­gazette.com/local/city/2015/10/18/Saw­Mill­Run­Alongside­congested­Route­51­glimmers­of­a­living­stream/stories/201510180093.print 2/5 10/18/2015 City ­ Pittsburgh Post­Gazette Saw Mill Run with large concrete "mattresses," meant to slow the flow of flood waters. (Rebecca Droke/Post­Gazette) Saw Mill Run flows behind the scenes, below steep slopes of fast­food plastic trash, relentless traffic, busted up sidewalks, miles of parking lots and commercial buildings, many boarded and vacant. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Pittsburgh District will soon begin an inventory of buildings along the stream to help EDS identify opportunities to buy land, bust up concrete, plant trees and install natural features to infiltrate rainwater. “We will do a floodplain management study of the main corridor,” from the Liberty Tunnels to Bethel Park along Library Road, said Ryan Fisher, outreach coordinator for the Pittsburgh District of the corps. “We will branch out to tributaries if funding allows.” The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority adopted the Saw Mill Run project as a pilot of its watershed management plan with $6 million to $7 in funding and professional services, including water testing to identify pollutants and their sources. PWSA’s James Stitt, manager of sustainability, said the authority wanted to do a “full­scale, multi­ municipal project across the spectrum of green infrastructure, [including] significant work along Route 51.” http://www.post­gazette.com/local/city/2015/10/18/Saw­Mill­Run­Alongside­congested­Route­51­glimmers­of­a­living­stream/stories/201510180093.print 3/5 10/18/2015 City ­ Pittsburgh Post­Gazette He said PWSA will develop “a pollution pie chart to determine where to spend the money first in developing an optimal green­gray infrastructure plan” for the watershed. Gray infrastructure is underground pipes and tanks. Castle Shannon buys into Ms. Brown’s vision. It is working on a plan to create a public amenity along Willow Avenue. “We have issues concerning stormwater and conditions of the stream,” said Barry Cassidy, the borough’s revitalization coordinator. “We would like to acquire some land and put a greenway around the stream, with benches and primitive paths.” The other sites the watershed association has targeted for stormwater management include the slope of McKinley Park along Bausman Street, Armstrong Park in Baldwin and Beggs Snyder Park in Dormont. Seldom Seen, so named because early railroad development closed it off, is ironically the most accessible way, with a parking lot, to enjoy the stream over 90 wooded acres. The city established it as a greenway in 1985, just beyond its salt dome. About 50 yards into the woods, water bounces and riffles, birds flit and land on rocks and leaves drift by. It makes you go still, like a song you love. It is making a U­shape on its way to the greenway entrance. At that point, the stream gets animated, as if it knows the journey’s almost over. Under a vaulted bridge of skewed brickwork, water rushing down rocks drowns out jack breaks on the highway. “People think nature is something you have to drive hours to get to,” said Ms. Brown, watching a regatta of orange and yellow leaves riding a current. “Who would think this is 20 feet away from Saw Mill Run Boulevard? ”The more I see of this stream, the more excited about my job I become.” For the tour of project sites, the bus leaves at 9 a.m. Thursday from the parking lot of the Old Country Buffet, 860 Saw Mill Run Blvd. and returns by 12.45 p.m. Call 412­884 ­1400 (ext.104) or email [email protected] to reserve a seat by Monday. Diana Nelson Jones: djones@post­gazette.com or412­263­1626. http://www.post­gazette.com/local/city/2015/10/18/Saw­Mill­Run­Alongside­congested­Route­51­glimmers­of­a­living­stream/stories/201510180093.print 4/5 10/18/2015 City ­ Pittsburgh Post­Gazette http://www.post­gazette.com/local/city/2015/10/18/Saw­Mill­Run­Alongside­congested­Route­51­glimmers­of­a­living­stream/stories/201510180093.print 5/5.

Load more

  5

Copy Link