Raw sewage has been pouring into Lower Yough River for 1 year

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The sewage has been pouring into the Lower Yough River for a year and this is the first time the public is hearing about it? 95 Million gallons in seven weeks? Who's jurisdiction? Allegheny County Health Department.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08017/849865-85.stm

Thursday, January 17, 2008
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The sewage overflows continued yesterday and have occurred every day since Nov. 25. During those seven weeks, more than 95 million gallons have flowed into the river, including one day, Dec. 16, that the overflow was measured at 6.3 million gallons.

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Sewage pollution has been a problem for some time in the area:

Pipe Dreams: Sewage problems run deep in region

http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20020714sewers0714P2.asp

While the rivers are usually polluted by sewage only during heavy rains, surveys done by 3 Rivers -- 2nd Nature, a river assessment project funded by The Heinz Endowments, shows that even in dry weather, most of the region's small streams don't meet water quality standards because of sewage contamination.

Collectively, those streams are four times as long as the region's rivers, and present proportionately greater health risks, especially for children who may play in or near the flows.

Schombert offers another reason to care about sewage flowing into rivers and streams: they supply almost 90 percent of the region's public drinking water.

...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_544484.html

Many lines -- for sewage, storm water or drinking water -- are a century old, said Stanley States, a microbiologist and water quality manager for the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. Deteriorating freshwater pipes might leak up to 25 percent of the water they transport, according to state Department of Environmental Protection data.

Area rivers are filthy with common ingredients found in plastics, detergents and contraceptives, says professor Conrad Dan Volz of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute's Center for Environmental Oncology. Those chemicals have caused male channel catfish in the Allegheny River to develop eggs in their testes, Volz said.

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I wonder if it is has something to do with this project...

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_521012.html

Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Contractors likely will not finish the Yough Sanitary Authority public sewage project on time. The deadline is Sept. 10, but Shallenberger Construction is only 48 percent finished with laying pipe in Vanderbilt, Dunbar Township and Franklin Township, and 19 percent complete laying pipe in Dawson and Lower Tyrone Township. Port Vue Plumbing is 42 percent finished with the wastewater treatment plant and two pump stations. A-1 Electric, which cannot complete its work until the plant and pump stations are further along, is 35 percent finished.

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