Congress takes August break, but work goes on
Goal is to reconnect with constituents
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON— During the swampiest days of the year, the U.S. Capitol building largely clears out — the ornate House of Representatives and Senate chambers closed and quiet, the corridors of the office buildings empty.
Like students, the 535 members of Congress get a summer recess in August every year from the daily grind of legislating in Washington. This year, the House adjourned July 26 and is scheduled to reconvene on Sept. 9 — a six-week break — while the Senate stayed an extra week and is taking off five. It’s the longest break afforded by the Congressional calendar.
Halfway through the August recess, however, it is clear the work never really stops.
The recess, officially called a “district work period,” is designed so lawmakers can regroup with constituents by holding town halls, setting up small-group meetings
intersection. The houses face Whitehall, just across the street.
Several residents they’re ready to pack up.
Others are mulling leaving a home and neighbors they’ve known for decades. They’re blaming elected officials for not regularly maintaining the creek. They also blame upstream development for the worsening water runoff.
“It’s not a real easy problem to solve, it just isn’t. You have a lot of anger. Some of my neighbors say enough is enough already,” said Ms. Booth, who has to monitor her daughter and sick husband every time there’s a threat of rain. “They have to do something. Mainly a lot of people would just like them to clean out debris [from the creek]. … We’ve been ignored for years.”
A councilman’s plan
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Councilman Anthony Coghill, who represents the neighborhood, has submitted a $2.1 million budget request for 2020 to jump-start the plan, which he said is still in its “infancy.”
“It’s reached the point where these people are no longer safe in their homes,” he said.
Mr. Coghill maintains that buying out the properties and turning the area into a green space for storm water collection would be cheaper than constructing new drainage infrastructure along the road. However, the city has not yet completed a cost analysis.
“If we can purchase that piece of land and get the right engineers, make it a bioswale or reservoir. I’m just looking to get people out of harm’s way,” he said.
Mayor Bill Peduto’s office said action on the situation is “imminent.”
“The assessment is ongoing, and certainly Councilman Coghill has been very clear, and we support him and the fact that decisions need to be made on Provost Road in the beginning of 2020,” said Chief of Staff Dan Gilman.
Bottom of a bowl
The Saw Mill Run watershed encompasses 12 municipalities and 17 miles of uncovered streams. Bethel Park, Whitehall, Castle Shannon and portions of Brentwood, Dormont, Green Tree and Mt. Lebanon are upstream, while city neighborhoods from Overbrook to the West End are downstream.
Development along the Saw Mill Run valley was built in a floodplain, according to the Saw Mill Run Watershed Association.
“Basically they live at the bottom of a bowl, and if you’re pouring water down the sides of a bowl, the people at the bottom are going to be flooded out,” Lisa Brown, the association’s executive director, said.
“Really, truly, I agree with Councilman Coghill that the best plan is to create a fund to buy out these folks,” she said. “Now whether it’s going to alleviate all the flooding on [Route] 51 or all the flooding on Provost Road, can be debated, but at least we don’t have people who are in injurious situations. … [and] the fact is, the folks can’t sell their houses.”
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority is working with Ms. Brown and the 11 surrounding municipalities as well as PennDOT and the Army Corps of Engineers to implement an “integrated watershed management plan.” The coalition is seeking 66 to 222 surface acres, with a depth of three acres, to “reactivate” a natural floodplain that will absorb storm water before it runs down into the valley.
Whitehall, on its own, just finished a 400,000-gallon storm water storage system and cleared debris and trees from the creek upstream of Provost, according to borough Manager James Leventry.
“Throughout time with all this development all the floodplain along Saw Mill Run has been eliminated,” said Ana Flores, an engineer withPWSA’s storm water division. “There’s no space for water to spread out and dissipate its energy.”
Though the location hasn’t been determined, the properties along Provost Road could be an option, she said.
A request for bids is forthcoming, and the project could get started as soon as the end of this year, according to PWSA.
Tammy Kammenzind, 49, said she would welcome a buyout for the property she and her husband have owned since 1992. She said they have sunk thousands into installing wall anchors to repair a “huge crack as a result of water seeping into the foundation from the floods.” She also said her flood insurance premium has doubled over the last five years.
“[Floods] have gotten worse, it’s gotten more frequent,” she said. “A lot of times [police] block the roads and we can’t even get there.”
A long-term issue
Pittsburgh’s rainfall record, previously set in 1854, was shattered last year, as the area received 57.83 inches, according to the National Weather Service Pittsburgh office.
The region is on pace for a similar year. However, long -term averages for the area remain normal, said Lee Hendricks, meteorologist with NWS Pittsburgh.
“Saw Mill Run area has been a problem now for about 20 years. It’s been a combination of things, urbanization has been part of the issue and also debris and sediment in the basin itself,” Mr. Hendricks said.
Some residents and business owners think the city’s MCNEILLY late in offering help.
“See that bridge, they RD. don’t clean up under there when it gets clogged up,” said Ron Lippert, 64, who has co-owned an alignment service at the intersection of Saw Mill Run Boulevard and Provost since 1973. “This is a joke around here.”
The city maintains that it bears no responsibility for clearing debris because property records show that residents’ and business owners’ parcels extend beyond the creek. The city owns the bridge, according to the mayor’s office.
But whoever clears debris from the creek would need a permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as all stream beds belong to the Commonwealth, according to PWSA.
DEP did not respond to an inquiry about the stream behind Provost Road.
But Ms. Sharpe claims removal of debris and concrete chunks from an old driveway that was razed within the last five years may have prevented the June 2017 flood.
“Now these environmentalists don’t want us to disturb the quote natural habitat, which is rats, snakes and mosquitoes,” she said. She doesn’t want to move. “I have a brand new twostory garage. I have a big 20-foot deck on the back. I have two bathrooms, the basement’s completely finished. I have full-house AC, off-street parking,” she said. “I have spent 30 years putting this house the way I want it.”