Reinforcing service reliability through utility collaboration
The need for safe, high-quality drinking water never stops, so neither do we. Our stewardship of water – our shared vital resource – extends from its source, the Allegheny River, to your taps.
Each year, your water undergoes rigorous quality testing, with 2024 being no exception. Our talented team of professionals works 24/7, 365 days a year to safeguard the quality of your drinking water. These teams performed an average of 3,000 water quality tests per month. Real-time water quality monitoring is critically important, so your water is also tested continuously throughout the treatment process and as it moves through our 965-mile-long distribution system.
Pittsburgh Water has taken big steps to reaffirm our commitment to environmental sustainability in recent years. Operationally, we've started including sustainability-focused metrics in contracts for facility and construction work. In 2023, we committed that a significant portion of our energy consumption would be powered by wind and other renewable resources in collaboration with the Western PA Energy Consortium. This group is also working with the PA Solar Center to assess the potential for dedicated solar panel installations at our Water Treatment Plant.
Not only is your water safe and of the highest quality, but we also took steps this year to bolster its reliable delivery. Recognizing how important an uninterrupted power supply is for water treatment and distribution, we collaborated with Duquesne Light Company to install a dual power feed at one of our largest water pumping stations located at the Pittsburgh Water Treatment Plant.
This project provides redundant, flexible, and reliable power service, significantly reducing the risk of service disruptions due to power outages. This critical infrastructure upgrade has added redundancy and security to our water system, ensuring consistent water delivery even during unforeseen events.
Our Environmental Compliance & Ethics team plays a unique and vital role at Pittsburgh Water. The team’s varied roles and responsibilities have real impact in our community, ensuring that environmental rules, regulations, and permits are being followed. Oversight and enforcement of provisions meant to protect the environment serve to prevent illegal pollution of our waterways, avoid damage to infrastructure, and promote the proper functioning of our water and sewer systems. The results of our Environmental Compliance team’s work are cleaner waterways, better health for fish, wildlife, and all of us who live here, and infrastructure that continues to function as intended.
We’ve remained dedicated to making sure that everyone in Pittsburgh has access to high-quality drinking water. That means that, in addition to meeting and routinely exceeding all federal and state regulations for water quality, we’ve also been working to protect our local rivers and streams. By doing so, we can help protect public health and our environment not just for today, but for future generations as well.