Rivers Run Through This

The Allegheny County Health Department will now be providing public alerts when air quality forecasts show a potential for poor air quality in the Monongahela River Valley. According to a release, these air quality alerts for the Mon Valley will begin on April 12.

Residents can access these air quality alerts using Allegheny Alerts app, which requires a free subscription and sends notifications via email, text, phone, or push notifications.

The ACHD has also issued a statement that air quality readings for PM2.5 particular matter at the Liberty monitor have increased and have remained elevated.

Click here to read more about these new air quality alerts.

On Thursday afternoon, a wildfire broke out in Watson Township by Cobham Hill Road.

What is now being referred to as the Cobham Hill wildfire on Allegheny National Forest, has required assistance from state and federal entities.

According to a press release from the USDA Forest Service, the DCNR Bureau of Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service have been called in to help deal with the fire.

The fire broke out northeast of Tidioute and was reported on Thursday at 12:24 p.m. By mid-afternoon, according to the Forest Service, the fire had spread to an estimated 50 to 100 acres and on the Allegheny National Forest

To read more about this incident and the response, click here.

A public, virtual meeting was held Wednesday evening to present and discuss master design plans for the Hazelwood Green Riverfront project.

The entire 178-acre, 1.3-mile-long site along the Monongahela River in Hazelwood is being targeted for redevelopment by its owner, Almono LP, which is made up of The Heinz Endowments, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.

The meeting was hosted by the planning-design team at Environmental Planning & Design, the firm leading the project’s design process.

The plans, which were presented by Andrew J.G. Schwartz, studio director of EPD, are the culmination of initial planning and community input during a three-day public workshop held in October, as well as through neighborhood and citywide surveys; presentation and input sessions at other community meetings; and stakeholder conversations held over the past seven months, officials said.

For the full story, click here.

Through much of the 19th and into the early 20th century, the most efficient way to get the vast lumber resources of this area to market was on rafts like this that would be floated to Pittsburgh and beyond, including as far as New Orleans. This raft was tied to the north bank of the Allegheny River along what is now the 400 block of Pennsylvania Ave. W.

To view the images, click the link here!

Trihalomethanes (THMs), a family of halogenated disinfection byproducts, are ubiquitously present in finished drinking water. They form as a result of the interaction between organic matter and chlorination in the disinfection process. 3RQ has partnered with several water authorities in Southwestern Pennsylvania to study levels of THMs and conditions that affect their formation.

To learn more about 3RQ's efforts with this project, click the links below!
Fact sheet
Story Map

The Office of Abandoned Mine Lands and Reclamation (AML) has created a program to help projects located on or adjacent to mine sites that ceased operations prior to the signing of the Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) on Aug. 3, 1977.

West Virginia coalfields have been donated over $130 million since 2016 through the AML Pilot Program. To view a map of AML in the state of West Virginia, click here.

To sign up for the 2021 round of grant finding, click the link here! Make sure to submit completed applications by July 31, 2021.

Website link
Contact Travis Parsons, Planning Administrator, for more information.
Phone: (304) 414-1185
Email: Travis.G.Parsons@wv.gov