Environmental Impact

The environmental and ecological restoration of Pittsburgh's riverfronts is not only an important component of the development Three Rivers Park—it's crucial.

Most of Pittsburgh’s riverbanks were formerly put to industrial use, with negative impact to fresh water systems.  Hard surfaces and retaining walls created hostile environments for native birds, fish, and mammals. Industrial processes and toxic runoff contaminated the soil and water.  Structural embankments increased the damage caused by major storms and floods.

While Pittsburgh has corrected many of the past practices that degraded its riverfronts, there’s still a long way to go. Responsible riverfront reclamation with an eye toward restoring natu’ral habitats is a good place to start.

Riverlife invites you to imagine Pittsburgh as a true “river town” — a city that not only enjoys its rivers, but also protects them through responsible stewardship. Here are several areas where we are working to make an environmental difference.

Storm water

Pittsburgh now has the chance to create a different and sustainable storm water management system. And with it comes a new relationship to its rivers.

Cyclical storm and flooding events often overwhelm the city’s aging sewer system, which results in storm water full of road oils, toxins and raw sewage to flow into the rivers. How do we put new systems in place to capture, clean and release storm water in an environmentally conscious way?

With support from the Grable Foundation, Riverlife commissioned German firm Atelier Dreiseitl in February 2007 to examine this problem. The Atelier studied the Ohio River Basin seeking broader opportunities to merge storm water treatment with engaging public places.  Lead designer Herbert Dreiseitl and his team spent six weeks doing field work, consulting all the riverfront property owners within the area and developing conceptual landscape design solutions.

After looking at geographical conditions across site boundaries, the Dreiseitl team created a concept for a project that could tie the numerous riverfront parcels together in a plan that is both a public landscape amenity and a water management solution.

“There is a tremendous opportunity for the riverfronts to become corridors for signature sustainable design developments.  Sustainable design aspects should include passive and active solarization, renewable energy generation, sustainable materials selection, storm water harvesting and reuse, water recycling, etc.  Thus sustainability is more than just a careful use of resources, it also has to include the human being as part of a sustainable system…The riverfront can become a new symbol or expression for a modern and progressive city, like a sustainable spine that moves through the urban setting.  Pittsburgh could become a leading proponent in the movement towards integrated and sustainable development.”

Specifically, the Atelier’s designs incorporate storm water collection and treatment to create a public amenity that cleans and filters storm water and minimizes the discharge of storm water into the Ohio River.  It is their opinion that this vision could become the basis for a new benchmark for sustainable water management, both locally and nationally.

Learn more: Rivers in Synergy: A Waterfront Vision for Pittsburgh's Ohio Basin. (PDF)

Brownfield Development

Pittsburgh is well-known for reversing environmental challenges on formerly industrial riverbanks through decades of innovative brownfield revitalization. The Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh has transformed these pivotal sites into economically- and environmentally-rewarding projects, often with Riverlife as a partner.

Through Riverlife’s own public planning processes as well as with partners, we ensure that riverbanks once choked by industry are developed in a way that reinstitutes riparian ecology and increases habitat. We know that environmental reclamation can be done while continuing to encourage recreation and commerce. Because we think comprehensively, we can look across property boundaries and work to set long term goals that the commercial community would not be in a position to support – and we have a record of providing private and public resources to make it happen.