Last week the EPA announced that it has awarded a $75,000 ‘green infrastructure’ grant to be shared by the Clean Rivers Campaign (CRC) and the 3 Rivers Wet Weather Program (3RWW) in Pittsburgh. Since 2007 the EPA has promoted the use of sustainable solutions to the problem of stormwater runoff. The grant will be used to assistance in evaluate the feasibility of incorporating green infrastructure in wet weather planning for the municipalities in the ALCOSAN area.

It is expected that as 3RWW focuses on site-by-site evaluation and investment (applying the Rainways and other tools to site projects and evaluating their stormwater retention potential), the CRC will look for a broader, big-picture view of how to maximize large-scale green solutions throughout the ALCOSAN service area, including cost/benefit analysis, number of jobs that might be created, etc.