PWSA no longer just deals with your drinking water and sewage. Now it’s also taking responsibility for the flooding in your basement.
by Oliver Morrison, PublicSource
Although the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has typically focused on providing clean water and transporting sewage, recent years have presented a newer, pressing challenge: the city’s flooding, landslide and basement backup problems.
The water authority [PWSA] has proposed a new stormwater fee, which will charge customers according to how much rain water hits their roofs and pavement. The revenue will help PWSA address its flooding challenges as it continues to try to remove sewage that overflows into the city’s rivers when it rains. These problems will only increase as climate change intensifies the city’s rainwater problems, according to Tony Igwe, the person PWSA has hired to direct these new efforts.
Igwe talked with PublicSource about his background, how the agency will prioritize the tens of millions of dollars in projects and why he thinks state Rep. Ed Gainey, the victor of the Democratic primary for Pittsburgh mayor, will ultimately support new projects despite pledging not to raise water rates.
What do you think is the most important trait that you bring to the job?
I think honestly the greatest skill for me may be to be able to look at things from a weird angle because of an eclectic background. I was born and raised in Nigeria up until the age of 15. And in Nigeria, my parents moved every two or three years. Then I went to Yugoslavia for two or three years and learned the language
So you learn how to adapt, you realize there is a lot about people that is the same and quite a bit that is different. It gives you a broader view of things, makes it easier to come alongside somebody and see what they see.
What would a new stormwater fee mean for the work you are planning?
Whenever you introduce a new fee for anything, the first pushback is: Why are you charging me something? There are people who have had their parking lot for years and years and years and never had a single charge and now they’re going to be getting invoices.
All the charges down through the years have been generated through the water bill. So if you are a parking lot, you are not charged for a water bill. But all the runoff and grease and wrappers in your parking lot washes into the sewer, and PWSA has to maintain and manage the sewer. People felt that was not really the fairest way to go. So the thought was, let’s try to recover what the cost was to apply this service.
Then as time goes on, it will allow PWSA to do better and more targeted stormwater management. Now, as a stormwater fee-paying customer, they can come to you and say, “Why do I still get flooding? What do you mean climate change is impacting the service you are giving me? How are you going to address those impacts from climate change?”
Tony Igwe, PWSA’s manager of stormwater. (Courtesy photo / Art by Natasha Vicens)
READ ENTIRE ARTICLE AT:
https://www.publicsource.org/pwsas-stormwater-director-flooding-climate-igwe-gainey-rate/
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