Two state grants totaling nearly $500,000 will help communities across southwestern Pennsylvania better prepare for flooding, landslides and extreme heat.
Awarded to Allegheny County and a local conservation nonprofit, the funding will aid municipalities and build on existing climate planning and conservation initiatives across southwestern Pennsylvania.
The county was awarded $299,700 through a Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (DCNR) program and will support the Southwestern Pennsylvania Regional Resilience Partnership, which is a collaborative initiative to address climate challenges across 12 counties.
The Allegheny County Conservation District (ACCD) was awarded $176,417 through the state’s Growing Greener program, which is designed to help postindustrial municipalities improve water quality.
The Regional Resilience Partnership will establish a framework for sharing information and technical support, while ACCD’s project will focus on advancing water quality improvements locally.
Officials said coordinating these efforts is designed to help reduce duplication, protect natural resources, expand access to expertise and make more effective use of limited municipal resources.
“Climate challenges don’t stop at municipal or county lines, and our solutions shouldn’t either,” Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said.
As part of the grant for the Regional Resilience Partnership, ACCD will work alongside the nonprofits Local Government Academy and Tree Pittsburgh, as well as Community Project Hub of Southwestern Pennsylvania and Congress of Neighboring Communities, to gather resources, develop training on climate resilience, expand peer-learning and provide specialized technical assistance to more than 100 municipalities.
ACCD provides regulatory, permitting and educational community-focused programming to protect natural resources.
ACCD’s Growing Greener program will partner with Allegheny County, the Center for Watershed Protection, WaterNow Alliance and Steel Rivers Council of Governments.
“We’ve divided the county up into various watersheds, and we’ve prioritized – with a multivariate tool — where communities are suffering from flooding, failing infrastructure, legacy sediment pollution,” said Heather Manzo, executive director of ACCD. “This grant funding is going to allow us to continue that watershed planning, and so we hope that it will help accelerate water quality improvement projects.”
DCNR-funded work is projected to launch in 2027.