Pitt engineers partnering with county on environmental and climate justice solutions

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

As the climate warms, Pennsylvania rainfalls are becoming more extreme while flood-related risks are worsening, according to a recent report from the nonprofit organization Climate Central. 

This intensity is only expected to climb with future warming – creating devastating effects on the health and stability of environmental justice communities, communities with predominantly people of color or those living below the poverty line, across Allegheny County. 

Engineers at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering and Mascaro Center of Sustainability Innovation (MCSI) are partnering with the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) and Landforce, an employment and environmental social enterprise, through a three-year $930,411 Environmental Justice Government-to-Government (EJG2G) grant to increase climate resilience in environmental justice communities through water-based cleanup projects and green infrastructure to minimize flooding and associated public health risks in environmentally burdened communities in the county. 

The Department of Emergency Services, Department of Sustainability and Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) are providing consultation for the climate resilience plans and green stormwater infrastructure designs. Allegheny CleanWays, a local nonprofit organization that works to eliminate illegal dumping and littering in Allegheny County, will oversee the cleaning of illegal dumping grounds and removing trash from waterways. 

“This partnership is emblematic of the important role universities can and should play with and in service of our communities, especially communities that are most affected by the flooding we’ve been experiencing these past few years,” said Melissa Bilec, co-director of Mascaro Center for Sustainable Innovation, Special Assistant to the Provost for Sustainability, and the George M. and Eva M. Bevier Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Pitt. “I feel honored and grateful to work with a talented team, and aim to demonstrate the service and talent of Pitt Engineering and MCSI.” 

Through Pitt’s sustainability capstone course – part of the undergraduate sustainability certificate and graduate degree program in sustainable engineering – students will partner with external stakeholders and determine solutions to these complex sustainability challenges. 

“We’re excited to be partnering with Pitt to achieve measurable and meaningful environmental and public health results in our environmentally vulnerable communities," said Dr. Stephen Strotmeyer, program manager, Chronic Disease Epidemiology, ACHD. "This has been a county goal since the creation of the Plan for a Healthier Allegheny to improve climate resilience and preparedness by 2027.”

As part of the grant, $93,110 will be allocated to Pitt to design small-scale green infrastructure projects that align with the climate resilience plans created by collaborations between municipal leaders and residents in environmental justice communities, the ACHD, the Steel Rivers and Turtle Creek Valley Councils of Governments (COGs), and other government and academic partners. The plans will use data from the ACHD Climate Resilience Dashboard and input from the community gathered during a series of focus groups. 

“Students will meet with government councils, municipalities, and nonprofit partners to learn about the priorities of each community. The goal is that they create designs for green infrastructure projects that are cost effective within a reasonable timeframe,” said David Sanchez, MCSI associate director and associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. “These projects will be created by the community, for the community to divert stormwater and reduce the impacts of flooding.”

In addition to their physical projects, students will develop a model to estimate the amount of storm water diverted per project, the total projected environmental impact, and the estimated maintenance costs. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the EJG2G program provides funding at the state, local, territorial and tribal level to support government activities that lead to measurable environmental or public health impacts in communities disproportionately burdened by environmental harms. For 2023, the EPA selected 88 EJC2C cooperative agreements that receive a total of $86.1 million in Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and annual appropriation act funding to help underserved and overburdened communities across the country.