{"id":84529,"date":"2026-01-12T12:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/84529\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T12:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T12:15:07","slug":"pittsburgh-neighborhood-flood-control-projects-slashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/84529\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh neighborhood flood control projects slashed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some flood-prone Pittsburgh neighborhoods will have to wait: Pittsburgh Water cut its budget for stormwater improvements, stalling projects for flood control across the city. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Projects in South Side Slopes, Four Mile Run and others are now on hold. The projects would have helped reduce stormwater pollution and mitigate flooding. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cStormwater projects in the City of Pittsburgh have been defunded almost across the board,\u201d said Annie Quinn, director of the Mon Water Project<\/a>, a local watershed group that supports Four Mile Run, a watershed that spans Schenley Park, Oakland, Hazelwood, Greenfield and Squirrel Hill. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh Water says it had to cut funding for stormwater projects like Four Mile Run, despite already having spent money on planning and design ($7.9 million before it was shelved at the end of 2024) so it can fund pump upgrades mandated by a consent decree. A consent decree is legally binding and lays out improvements required by state or federal government. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The utility has also continued to replace lead pipes, mandated under a previous consent decree. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPittsburgh Water is really protecting our customers through the delivery of safe and reliable water services,\u201d said Rebecca Zito, senior manager at Pittsburgh Water\u2019s public affairs office. \u201cAt the same time, though, we still have been able to remain committed to stormwater.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

Funding for capital projects in general is projected to drop as Pittsburgh Water focuses on existing and anticipated consent decrees. The utility is negotiating a new decree with the Environmental Protection Agency: a\u00a0Wet Weather consent decree<\/a>\u00a0to comply with the Clean Water Act and Clean Streams Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re strategically preparing ourselves for those additional requirements,\u201d Finance Director Edward Barca said.<\/p>\n

This year, stormwater projects received $29.5 million, but funding is set to decline each year. In 2029, stormwater will receive $169,014 according to the utility\u2019s 2025-29 capital improvement plan, which allocates money for long-term investments five years at a time, often pertaining to infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Floods, which have been made worse by wetter weather, development and aging infrastructure, are one of Pittsburgh\u2019s most likely and damaging hazards, according to the 2025 city\u00a0Emergency Operations Plan<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Four Mile Run project would have fortified the low-lying areas of Greenfield, known as \u201cthe Run,\u201d against sewage \u201cgeysers,\u201d where sewage and stormwater shoot from manholes. This happens when rain overwhelms tunnels underneath the Run, generating water pressure intense enough to pop manhole covers, which fly into the street, trailed by a spout of sewage and stormwater.<\/p>\n

Run resident Laura Vincent has seen geysers \u201cas high as that building,\u201d she said, pointing to a two-story building around the corner from her house. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTypically, it\u2019s more like 13 to 15 feet. But we have seen it at that height.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"\/Members of the Greenfield community who have dealt with flooding in the neighborhood. Flood levels have previously reached the top of the black fence behind them. Dec. 5, 2025<\/p>\n

The last time the geysers flooded streets and basements in the Run was 2021, Vincent said, when flood water \u2014 which sometimes swirls with toilet paper and dead rats \u2014 reached chest deep. After the water recedes, it leaves a smelly, dusty residue that permeates for weeks, according to Quinn and Vincent.<\/p>\n

The utility said it has completed 23 stormwater projects since 2018 and is continuing to maintain related infrastructure, according to Zito. This includes two drainage channels to manage stormwater in Schenley Park, completed in 2020.<\/p>\n

But according to the capital improvement plan, only six of the previous year\u2019s 16 stormwater projects are set to move forward.<\/p>\n

Projects with designs less than 90 percent complete, including Four Mile Run, \u201cgot shelved,\u201d said Tony Igwe, wet weather program manager at Pittsburgh Water.<\/p>\n

Barca said there is a possibility that the authority could secure outside funding to move forward with stormwater projects. But for now, residents will need to wait.<\/p>\n

When Pittsburgh Water cut stormwater funding, it had knockoff effects for South Side Park, which sits at the intersection of three neighborhoods: South Side Slopes, South Side Flats and Arlington. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a terrible blow,\u201d said Kitty Vagley, who is a volunteer board member and treasurer of Friends of South Side Park, a group dedicated to maintaining the nearly 60-acre piece of land, which she said had been neglected for decades. \u00a0In 2018, the City of Pittsburgh Department of Urban Planning produced\u00a0a South Side Park Master Plan<\/a>. If implemented in full, the plan would have converted the swampy entrance into a wetland. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole entrance to the park is now put on hold,\u201d Vagley said. \u201cIt was going to be this beautiful entrance. A parking area, boardwalk, a small amphitheater that we people could have concerts in.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Run in Greenfield, there have been some improvements, Vincent said. Pittsburgh Water fixed a faulty outflow, a piece of infrastructure that discharges water into the rivers.<\/p>\n

Vincent said this has reduced the risk of flooding, but the threat has not been eliminated. She continues to come across manholes that spray and bubble during heavy rain \u2014 a warning sign that they might soon blow. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of looks like \u2018shoo, shoo,\u2019\u201d Vincent said, making a spraying motion with her hands. \u201cIt is the way you would think of a whale spouting. It\u2019s that little wisp of water.\u201d Other times, when it bubbles, \u201cit looks like boiling water,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She and her husband John said they have spent thousands of dollars on flood-related cleanup and improvements at their home and their wood shop around the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuckily we were able to have the money to repair and do backflow valves, but a lot of people in this whole area down here, people don\u2019t,\u201d said John Vincent.<\/p>\n

Hannah Frances Johansson is a reporter for the Pittsburgh Media Partnership newsroom. She holds a master\u2019s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She is a 2025 recipient of the Overseas Press Club Scholar Award and a former 11th\u00a0Hour Food and Farming Fellow. Her reporting has appeared on CNN, Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source and Michigan Public Radio, among others. She resides in the city\u2019s North Side. Reach her at hannah.johansson@pointpark.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some flood-prone Pittsburgh neighborhoods will have to wait: Pittsburgh Water cut its budget for stormwater improvements, stalling projects…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6367,73,42303,75,74,42304],"class_list":{"0":"post-84529","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-greenfield","9":"tag-pittsburgh","10":"tag-pittsburgh-flooding","11":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","12":"tag-pittsburgh-news","13":"tag-pittsburgh-water-sewer-authority"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84529","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=84529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}