{"id":237332,"date":"2026-07-07T08:09:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/237332\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T08:09:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T08:09:07","slug":"should-you-swim-in-pittsburghs-rivers-a-water-researcher-breaks-down-the-answer-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/237332\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you swim in Pittsburgh\u2019s rivers? A water researcher breaks down the answer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThis story<\/a>, by University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Geology & Environmental Science Daniel Bain,\u00a0 was originally published at The Conversation<\/a>, a member of the Pittsburgh Media Partnership. It is used here with permission.<\/p>\n

In May, newly drafted Pittsburgh Steelers offensive guard Gennings Dunker amused Pittsburgh residents\u00a0during a news segment<\/a>, asking whether it was OK to swim in the rivers or eat the fish he planned to catch.<\/p>\n

The live reaction \u2014 surprise, laughter and more than a little uncertainty about the right answer \u2014 revealed something the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory<\/a> encounters regularly in its public outreach: Many Pittsburghers aren\u2019t sure whether their rivers are safe.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pennsylvanians have invested\u00a0over US$1 billion in state funding<\/a>\u00a0over the past four years to restore the Chesapeake Bay\u2019s watershed quality and ecosystem health. Up north,\u00a0policymakers in the U.S. and Canada are working together<\/a>\u00a0to keep the Great Lakes intact.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania residents\u00a0have a legal right<\/a> to fishable, swimmable waterways \u2014 a standard the rivers of Pittsburgh have not always met.<\/p>\n

As an\u00a0associate professor of geology and environmental science<\/a>, I study how human activity reshapes waterways and urban landscapes. My field work with the Pittsburgh Water Collaboratory tracks changes in the city\u2019s streams and rivers over time.<\/p>\n

The 3 rivers are improving<\/p>\n

Fifty years ago, a\u00a0fish population survey<\/a>\u00a0caught all of the fish in the Braddock Locks, one of the nine organizational structures of the Monongahela River, and found a single fish. One fish.<\/p>\n

In 2010,\u00a0during a similar survey<\/a>, over 23,000 fish, including 32 different species, were found.<\/p>\n

That recovery is significant, though\u00a0fish populations<\/a>\u00a0alone don\u2019t determine whether a river is safe for swimming.<\/p>\n

\"ONLY\"ONLY<\/a>MediaNews Group\/Reading Eagle via Getty Images<\/a>. Used by permission from The Conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwimmable\u201d waters<\/a> are a technical designation decided by regulators \u2014 primarily the Environmental Protection Agency and Pennsylvania\u2019s Department of Environmental Protection \u2014 who estimate contamination thresholds<\/a> above which swimming poses a meaningful health risk. Below those thresholds, a body of water is considered safe \u2014 though individuals still make their own calculations.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s rivers are a challenge<\/p>\n

Dunker\u00a0played college football<\/a>\u00a0in Iowa City, so the Iowa River offers a useful comparison. It has its own water quality problems, including dissolved nitrogen from\u00a0fertilizer runoff and hog waste<\/a>. But in this case, nitrogen is primarily a concern if you\u2019re drinking the water, not swimming in it.<\/p>\n

Whether a river is officially \u201cswimmable\u201d and whether you want to swim in it are two different questions.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>Raw sewage can enter Pittsburgh\u2019s rivers with as little as a tenth of an inch of rain. Heather Dieh\/News Collection via Getty Images<\/a>. Used by permission from The Conversation.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s situation is more complicated, and it comes down to sewage.<\/p>\n

The city has inherited hundreds of sewer overflow points throughout the city\u2019s three rivers \u2014 the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio<\/a>. There are hundreds of points in the sewer network where heavy rain pushes a\u00a0mixture of stormwater and raw sewage<\/a>\u00a0directly into the water. The Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, or\u00a0ALCOSAN<\/a>, is the regional sanitary authority. It says overflows can occur with as little as\u00a0a tenth of an inch of rain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The potential for exposure to raw sewage makes rivers in the ALCOSAN service area unswimmable for at least 48 hours after rainstorms. The consequences of this are historically well documented.<\/p>\n

In 2002<\/a>, a city councilor promoting the Pittsburgh Triathlon had to swap the swim leg for a bike leg after an overflow.\u00a0In 2013<\/a>, triathlon racers reportedly fell ill after competing following a storm.\u00a0The 2016<\/a> triathlon became a \u201cduathlon\u201d \u2014 the swimming portion was canceled entirely.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"<\/a>In 2016, Pittsburgh\u2019s triathlon dropped its swim leg entirely. Sergey Mironov\/Moment Collection via Getty Images<\/a>. Used by permission from The Conversation.<\/p>\n

ALCOSAN warns of overflow impacts<\/a>\u00a0with orange flags at key points along the rivers. Swimming during these periods carries a meaningful risk of raw sewage exposure. For more precise information,\u00a0Three Rivers Waterkeeper<\/a>, a nonprofit that helps protect and restore the water quality of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers and their surrounding watersheds,\u00a0samples the rivers and tributaries<\/a>\u00a0weekly each summer as part of its Swim Guide program.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, ALCOSAN is working toward\u00a0making overflows rare<\/a>, though their planning horizon for these efforts stretches to 2046.<\/p>\n

Even if Dunker retires as a beloved Steeler, the rivers at that point will likely still be unswimmable after rainstorms.<\/p>\n

When is it safe to swim?<\/p>\n

Even during dry stretches, Pittsburgh\u2019s rivers carry the legacy of their industrial past.<\/p>\n

Abandoned coal mines and slag piles \u2014 mountains of waste left over from steel, mining and coal operations \u2014 continue to contribute dissolved materials<\/a>\u00a0to southwestern Pennsylvania waters. And like nitrogen, their risks to a swimmer aren\u2019t well understood. People are left making a personal call without much guidance.<\/p>\n

Fishing has clearer direction. Pennsylvania issues\u00a0specific advisories<\/a>\u00a0on how much fish you can safely eat from a given stretch of river. These advisories account for that lingering contamination.<\/p>\n

\"ONLY\"ONLY<\/a>The three rivers define Pittsburgh, but swimming in them remains complicated. AP Photo\/Keith Srakocic.<\/p>\n

Dunker\u2019s enthusiasm for the possibility of fishable, swimmable rivers shows us what could be.<\/p>\n

Those who have lived in Pittsburgh for years have witnessed incidents, including\u00a0oil spills<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0sewage overflows<\/a>, that invite skepticism about river safety. But as we witness the city\u2019s rivers steadily improve, some of us wonder whether they indeed will be fishable and swimmable in the near future.<\/p>\n

The march toward cleaner, healthier rivers continues, and I believe joyous optimism like Dunker\u2019s fuels this progress. But until we get there, Pittsburghers will all experience periods where we cannot freely fish or swim in the rivers that define the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story, by University of Pittsburgh Associate Professor of Geology & Environmental Science Daniel Bain,\u00a0 was originally published…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102215,73,75,74,1833,55618],"class_list":["post-237332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-alcosan","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburgh-water-collaboratory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}