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Water Quality and Conservation

See also Rivers and Watersheds.

Pittsburgh Region

  • Allegheny County Health Department: Public Drinking Water
    ACHD monitors and inspects public drinking water systems to ensure compliance with safe drinking water standards; investigates citizen complaints about water quality; and offers County residents free bacteriological testing of water samples from private wells.
  • Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative
    A broad-based citizen/industry/government program working to eliminate acid mine drainage from abandoned coal mines at the US Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM).

  • Clean Water Action, Pittsburgh
    Clean Water Action is a national citizens' organization working for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work. There is a chapter in Pittsburgh.
  • Ground-Water Remediation Technologies Analysis Center
    The Groundwater Remediation Technologies Analysis Center (GWRTAC) compiles, analyzes, and disseminates information on innovative ground-water remediation technologies.
  • National Academies Press: Regional Cooperation for Water Quality Improvement in Southwestern Pennsylvania
    Jan. 6, 2005: "A comprehensive, watershed-based approach is needed to effectively address water quality problems in southwestern Pennsylvania, says a new report from the National Academies' Water Science and Technology Board. The report outlines a technical framework to deal with these problems, and suggests ways to better unify and coordinate the region's efforts. Currently, water planning and management in southwestern Pennsylvania is highly fragmented; federal and state governments, 11 counties, hundreds of municipalities, and other entities all play roles, but with little coordination or cooperation."
  • Three Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Program
    a partnership of ALCOSAN and the Allegheny County Health Department established to provide county communities with the institutional, technical and financial tools to eliminate wet weather sewer overflows.
 

Water & Sanitary Authorities

  • ALCOSAN (Allegheny County Sanitary Authority)
    ALCOSAN is responsible for the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of sewage in Allegheny County, and certain adjacent areas and the collection, transportation, treatment and disposal of such industrial wastes as shall be acceptable to the Authority within said territory. The Authority’s service area is made up of the City of Pittsburgh and 82 neighboring municipalities in Allegheny County and parts of communities in Washington and Westmoreland Counties. The Authority serves an area of approximately 225 square miles with a population of about 900,000.
  • Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County
    The Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County (MAWC) provides 17 billion gallons of potable water to more than 350,000 residents in a five county area of Southwestern Pennsylvania.
  • Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority
    PWSA provides water and wastewater services to approximately 250,000 consumers throughout the City of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas.
 

Pennsylvania

 

Nearby States

  • ORSANCO: Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission
    Established on June 30, 1948 to control and abate pollution in the Ohio River Basin, ORSANCO is an interstate commission representing eight states and the federal government. Member states include: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.
    • RiverWatchers
      A citizen volunteer monitoring program for the Ohio River and selected tributaries started as a pilot project in 1992 by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) and now including 31 groups in six Ohio River Basin states, including Pennsylvania. It involves schools students in monitoring the water quality of the river.
  • West Virginia Water Research Institute
    The West Virginia Water Research Institute (WVWRI), located at West Virginia University, serves as a statewide vehicle for performing research related to water issues. WVWRI serves as the coordinating body for the following programs: the National Mine Land Reclamation Center, Appalachian Clean Streams Initiative, Acid Drainage Technology Initiative, Combustion Byproducts Recycling Consortium, National Environmental Education Training Center, Institute for Industrial Decommissioning, State Water Institutes, EPA Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, and Hydrology Research Center.
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United States

  • American Water Works Association
    The American Water Works Association (AWWA) is an international nonprofit scientific and educational society dedicated to the improvement of drinking water quality and supply. There are 50,000 members including 4,000 utilities.
  • Clean Water Action
    Clean Water Action is a 700,000 member national citizens' organization working for clean, affordable drinking water, reduction of health-threatening pollution, the creation of environmentally friendly jobs, businesses, and solutions for community problems through citizen participation in the legislative process.
  • Clean Water Network
    The Clean Water Network (CWN) is an alliance of more than 1,000 organizations that endorse its platform paper, the National Agenda for Clean Water, which outlines the need for strong clean water safeguards to protect human health and the environment.
  • EPA: US Environmental Protection Agency
    • Office of Water
      EPA enforces federal clean water and safe drinking water laws, provides support for municipal wastewater treatment plants, and takes part in pollution prevention efforts aimed at protecting watersheds and sources of drinking water.
    • Office of Wastewater Management
      Includes information on combined sewer overflows. Wet weather overflow of storm drains that are linked to sewers is a problem in the Northeast US, especially in the Pittsburgh area where many municipalities have combined storm/sewage systems.
  • H2Ouse
    A website from the California Urban Water Conservation Council providing advice on how to create a water-efficient home. It tells you how to save water in the garden, laundry, bath, and kitchen.
  • National Academies: EPA's Stormwater Program Needs Significant Overhaul
    An October 15, 2008 report emphasizes the problem of increased water volume rather than chemical pollutants in stormwater runoff. As more land is buing built on and paved over, more water is going down the drain instead of into the ground.
  • National Drought Mitigation Center
    Links to information on droughts around the country.
  • USGS: Water Resources of the United States
    Information from the US Geological Survey
  • WaterWiser
    The Water Efficiency Clearinghouse from the American Water Works Association includes water-saving tips.
 

International

  • Canadian Association on Water Quality (CAWQ)
    The Canadian Association on Water Quality (CAWQ) is an organization of scientists, engineers, technologists, administrators, and students engaged in or interested in research on water quality or treatment of water pollution.

  • United Nations: Water
    "The UNESCO Water Portal is intended to enhance access to information related to freshwater available on the World Wide Web. The site provides links to the current UNESCO and UNESCO-led programmes on freshwater and will serve as an interactive point for sharing, browsing and searching websites of water-related organizations, government bodies and NGOs, including a range of categories such as water links, water events, learning modules and other on-line resources."