When it rains our storm water pipes overflow and millions of gallons of raw sewage flow into our rivers. The federal EPA has said for years that this pollution of our valuable rivers has to stop. The question is, what is the best way to do that?
We in Allegheny County now have a huge choice to make: Do we fix the pollution of our rivers with ‘grey’ engineering solutions like building huge tunnels, or do we take the viable ‘green’ path?
The Clean Rivers Campaign, a regional collaborative of environmental groups, unions, faith groups, and policymakers, is working to solve this problem with the use of green strategies that catch the water where it falls. Other cities have shown that permeable pavements, roof gardens, and lots of trees help catch the water. These ‘green’ measures also make our communities more livable, create more jobs, and clean the air.
Please come to the Clean Rivers Campaign kickoff on Thursday!
Learn more about the issues, and let’s send a message to the EPA that we need their help to make the ‘green choice’ a reality in Pittsburgh.
7:00 p.m. at the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 95 (300 Saline Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15207 -- Saline is off Greenfield Avenue just uphill from the underpass by Second Avenue).
Join the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association for their annual benefit event: The Summer Storm.
Last year during the Allegheny Defense Project's spring outing they discovered a population of synchronous fireflies. In the fall of last year, the Allegheny National Forest Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) approved a small grant to pay for firefly researchers to travel to the ANF in June to study this population. The field season is starting, and you can participate! It is very important that those of us living in an around the ANF, or who are willing to visit the ANF for the purposes of this study, begin to watch for the first occurence of firefly activity.
Link to Outing Location
Join us for the Fifth Putting Down Roots Sustainability Salon, another in our ongoing series of monthly enviro-conversational gatherings with potluck food and homemade music. Following our rousing discussions on solar power, food, wide-ranging topics prior to Earth Day, and trees, this month we'll have another open environmental salon. We can revisit growing and sourcing food, check in on our rooftop garden and solar panels, learn about green building, regional air quality or the ever-changing situation with Marcellus Shale, contemplate the meaning of "sustainability"... What we talk about will depend in part upon who comes; that's the beauty of an open-ended gathering like this! 
You've seen his work in the NMRWA newsletters, email blasts, and calendars, now grab your camera and join John Moyer on a tour of his favorite spots to photograph along Nine Mile Run. He will offer helpful hints and tips for improving your nature photography, no matter the type of camera you use. His photographic documentation of the Nine Mile Run restoration has been published in Civil Engineering Magazine, Western Pennsylvania History Magazine, and Landscape Architecture, and has also appeared in the PBS documentary Liquid Assets. This is a popular event, so you must pre-register! For more information, contact Sara at 412-371-8779 ext. 123 or sarap@ninemilerun.org. 
Did you know that the largest public works expenditure in our region’s history is about to begin, and that you’re expected to help pay for it? Do you know the difference between gray and green infrastructure? Come learn the answers to these questions and more, as we explore how you can make a difference by helping advocate for sustainable solutions to our region’s sewer problems.
