![]() PWSA’s water treatment plant in Aspinwall in 2017 required major improvements. Some of those employees did not follow all the legal requirements, including when they made changes to how they reduced lead in the water. And that meant that the people who had to do the work were not always managed well. Without sufficient funds, the authority couldn’t properly fix its infrastructure and struggled to hire top leadership. The problems at PWSA compounded: Political interference across several administrations not only meant that it was saddled with former city employees, but it was also burdened with pet projects and struggled to raise rates. Or the dramatic showdown between Peduto and the board he nominated. And that’s to say nothing of the billion-dollar privatization takeover that failed in plain sight. There were water quality administrators who refused to follow environmental regulations. There were $10 million giveaways to developers and risky $100 million bond deals that tanked. There was the former city councilor hired as the safety director who knew little about necessary protocols for a water plant. The story features leaders criticized for putting political ambitions over the city’s water and at other times included outright unethical and illegal deeds. The problems had roots that went back decades and intersected with the city’s failing steel economy. “I just feel better and safer, with my boys more than anything, not drinking it,” she said. A test indicated there was no lead in their tap water but Lane was still worried. ![]() Kanitra Lane and her son Major Lane-Curry, 7, drink bottled water before dinnertime on March 8, 2017. Updated: A lawsuit could lower thousands of tax bills and threaten Allegheny County's 'house of cards' property assessment system.Only partly sunny? Solar backers say federal action isn’t enough.The Ohio-PA abortion pipeline is fraught with barriers.It’s a case study in how companies and governments alike can avoid the obvious threats on the horizon. The story of how PWSA failed and how it managed to revive itself isn’t just a matter for the history books. The stakes have never been higher as increased rains from climate change threaten to overwhelm the sewage system. ![]() The average water and sewage bill is already over $100 per month and some estimates suggest it could increase to between $240 and $334 per month in the next two decades. And it’s going to hit Pittsburghers’ pocketbooks hard. But projects like these collectively will cost billions. Now, Pittsburgh is on pace to be one of the few cities that has removed all of its public and private-side lead pipes by 2026. After years of less-than-sufficient rate increases, the old pipes and pumps that were barely holding together were failing in increasingly dramatic ways. Lead wasn’t the only problem or, by some accounts, even the biggest problem the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority faced. There is a simple way of telling the story: The city got what it paid for. And many of the most important moments received little attention. In the course of reporting this series, I found many of the oft-repeated explanations were incomplete. It happened so fast and had so many bureaucratic twists and turns that it was easy to miss what had actually happened.
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