HISTORY OF THE PITTSBURGH PUBLIC

WATER SUPPLY(1802 to present)

A Very Brief History of Water Supply

300 B.C. – Roman EmpireAqueducts and lead plumbing

2000 B.C. - CreteWooden pipe/stone sewers

1200 A.D. - United Kingdom 5.5 km lead pipeline delivered water from Tyburne Brook to London

1664 A.D. - France25 km Iron pipe from Marly-on-Seine to the Palace of Versailles

A Very Brief History of Water Supply

1817 - Philadelphia, PACast iron pipe

1754 - Bethlehem, PABored logs with lead joints

1842-1893 - New York City Croton Water Supply (upland)Tunnels and iron pipe

1913 - Los AngelesOwens Valley AqueductInfamous “interbasin transfer”

1829 – London,England1st Sand Filter (Chelsea Waterworks)

PITTSBURGHPITTSBURGH

1794 – organized as a Borough

1816 – incorporated as a City

Sources of WaterBack in the Day

• River and Pond Water-

frozen in winter – very warm in summer

“When Pittsburghers drink river water –

they stir up the mud from the bottom

of the bucket before they take a drink”

Sources of WaterBack in the Day

• Natural Springs-flowing out of the hills

Springs at foot of Grant’s Hill utilized

from 1780s till 1840

People complained of sulfur smell

Sources of WaterBack in the Day

• Wells

Difficult to rent out a property w/o a well

Difficult to dig wells

Private well owners reluctant to allow public use

Sources of WaterBack in the Day

• Rain water gathered in cisterns

Undependable supply

FIRST CENTURY (emphasis on water quantity)

First Public Water System

• 1802 – Burgesses authorized construction of 4 public wells

47 ft deep & lined with stone

Located on Market St & equipped with hand pumps

• Burgesses also authorized compensation for private well owners who allowed public use of their wells

First Public Water System

• Cost to Borough

Paid by tax on residents

total cost-$525

Difficult to collect tax

Upgrade of Original System

• Early debate over upgrades to system

focused on private vs public provision

of water

Upgrade of Original System

• By 1820-city outgrew original system

Lines of people at public wells

People utilized river for water

Many residents kept tanks in backyard filled by ‘Water Carters’

First Pumped Water System

• 1822 - Citizens petitioned council to build a pumped system utilizing river water

Petition specified public ownership

Greatest opposition - ‘Water Carters’

First Pumped Water System

• 1828 – First pumped system constructed

Supervisory committee – Messers. Fairman, Magee, Denny, Carson, Hayes

PS located at foot of Cecil Alley

First Pumped Water System

• Pumped to 1 million gal reservoir on Grant’s Hill

System included: 1 pump, 1 steam boiler, 1 reservoir, & 1.5 miles of pipe

Cost - $111,000

First Pumped Water System

• First 3 yr of operation-

Daily pumpage only 40,000 gal/day

pumping engine operated only 21 hr/wk

Households strictly limited in water use

Frequent pipe breaks due to weak mains

PITTSBURGH IN THE YEAR 1840. A LITHOGRAPH PRINTED IN NUREMBURG, GERMANY BY C. BERG.

1844 Upgrade

• Cecil Alley Pump Station and Grant Hill Reservoir abandoned

• Larger pump station built at 11th St & Etna St

• 7.5 million gallon reservoir built at Prospect St & Elm St

1844 Upgrade

• New pump station contained 2 steam-driven pumps (‘Samson’ & ‘Hercules’)

• Combined pump capacity = 9 mgd

• Pumped almost continuously for 40 yr

• Water bills: $3-$10 per year per household $20-$40 per year per hotel $15-$150 per year per factory

1848 Upgrade

• Required by continued expansion of city to eastern hill section & Great Fire of 1845

• Additional reservoir built at Erin St & Bedford Ave (2.7 mil gal capacity)

• Additional pump station built to feed new reservoir

• System delivered water to 6,600 locations thru 21 miles of pipe

1870 Upgrade

• 1867 – 14 wards annexed to city

(additional 35,000 people)

• Additional pumps added to existing stations

• Temporary pump station built at 45th &

Allegheny River

(pumped <1mgd and used until 1879)

1879 Upgrade

• By 1878: population = 106,000 daily pumpage = 15 mgd

• 1879 – Highland Res. #1 built (125 mil gal)

Brilliant Pump Station constructed

Brilliant Hill Res. built (never used)

• 1880 - Herron Hill Res & Pump Station built (replaced by larger pump station in 1897)

Brilliant Pumping Station (late 1800’s)

Carnegie Lake

Construction of Herron Hill Reservoir

Herron Hill Reservoir

1880’s-1890’s Upgrades

• 1880’s – Meters installed

• Early 1880’s - small tanks & pump

stations built for Garfield &

Lincoln neighborhoods

• 1903 – Highland #2 Res built (125 mil gal)

HAIGHLAND #2 RESERVIOR

CONSTRUCTION OF HIGHLAND #2 RESERVIOR

HIGHLAND RESERVIOR #2 INFLUENT

CONSTRUCTION OF HIGHLAND #2

RISING MAIN LEADING TO HIGHLAND #2

PIPE LEADING TO HIGHLAND #2 RESERVIOR

Consolidation of Pittsburgh, Allegheny, & Monongahela Water

Systems

• 1907 – Pittsburgh & Allegheny Cities combined

• 1908 – Pittsburgh purchased Monongahela Water Company

Northside Water System

• 1849 – Allegheny constructed pump station on River Ave & reservoir on Troy Hill

• 1882 - Allegheny built Howard Pump Station (supplied tanks on Spring Hill and

Nunnerey Hill from River Ave PS)

• 1896 – Allegheny built Montrose PS (cost = $2 mil, capacity = 36mgd) (operated until 1914)

Southside Water System

• Monongahela Water Company served Southside prior to its annexation to Pgh

• 1865 – PS built at Mon River at 29th St Birmingham Res built on 30th St

• 1875 – Small PS built at Birmingham Res to service hill section

Southside Water System

• 1895-1904 – 3 Allentown Tanks built

• 1908 – Pgh purchased Mon Water Company

• By 1930 – Little of Mon Water System still in service (other than Allentown tanks and distribution mains)

Fire Protection

• A critical mission for public water supply is fire protection

• Earliest houses in Pittsburgh were of log construction and built 30 to 60 ft apart

• Later houses were frame and built closer

• Initial firefighting method – ‘Bucket Brigade’

Fire Protection

• 1794 – Eagle Fire Company formed (First elected engineer = John Johnson)

City population = 1000

Fire station located on 1st Ave near Chancery Lane

Utilized hand-operated pumper called the ‘Eagle’

Fire Protection

Additional Fire companies organized-

1802 – Allegheny Fire Company

1811 – Vigilant Fire Company

1815 – Neptune Fire Company

1816 – Ordinance requiring leather buckets

Fire Protection

• 1859 – First steam-driven firepumper

(nicknamed the ‘Steam Boat’

by other fire companies)

• 1870 – Pittsburgh’s first paid fire company

(end of volunteer fire companies)

The Steamer of the Pittsburgh Fire Department with the Eagle Company’s horse-drawn engines.

Great Fire of 1845

• City population – 22,000

• April 10, 1845 Noon – Sparks from washerwoman’s wash pot ignite stable at Ferry St & 2nd Ave 6pm – Fire was finally burning itself out

Smithfield St Bridge blown up by residents

Great Fire of 1845

• Losses –

2 deaths 12,000 people homeless approx 1/3 of city destroyed (56 acres) 982 buildings destroyed $6 to $8 million damage

• Contributing factor – Lack of water “When the firefighters attached their hoses, they found only a weak sickly stream of muddy water”

Great Fire of 1845

“In all this vast space, the very heart of the city,

including most of the warehouses of our manu-

facturers, and our principal wholesale grocers

and commission merchants, there is not one

house standing that we know of”

Gazette – April 11, 1845

BEFORE THE FIRE. A PAINTING MADE IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF 1845 BY GEORGE BREED.

THE BURNING OF PITTSBURGH as painted by William Coventry Wall two days after the devastation.

THE BURNT OUT CITY A Contemporary painting by William C. Wall

First 50 yr of Public Water Supply

• Construction of the water system was the largest expenditure made by city

(40% of all municipal spending)

• Water services not evenly distributed (working class neighborhoods served less than affluent areas) (1872 Water Commission ruling relating pipe size to potential revenue)

SECOND CENTURY

(emphasis on water quality)

Need for Water Treatment

• Throughout 19th century – no treatment

• 1855 – John Snow demonstrated relationship between drinking water quality and cholera

• Disease in Pittsburgh indicated need for water treatment

Cholera

• Like London – Pittsburgh experienced cholera outbreaks (1832,1833,1834,1849,1850,1854,1855)

• 1832 – outbreak appeared first in other cities

Religious leaders urged “a day for fasting, humiliation, and prayer, that God would avert the danger threatening the country from Asiatic cholera”

Cholera

• 1833 – Outbreak returned with even

greater virulence

Newspapers suppressed info

on epidemic

100 cases treated & 75 deaths

Cholera

• 1849 – Southside was hardest hit

Birmingham almost depopulated by residents fleeing to countryside

Outbreak almost halted river travel

Coal fire or pitch pot on every street

CHOLERA EPIDEMICS“Cholera Epidemics kept Pittsburgh in fear. Coal fires and pitch pots were lit in the streets, expecting that the flames would kill the cause of the disease. Hundreds perished in 1832, 1833, 1834, 1849, 1850, 1854 and 1855.” As stated in the book PITTSBURGH the Story of an American City, by Stefan Lorant.

Cholera

• 1854 – worst outbreak of all

400 deaths in two weeks

Howard Association formed to deal with epidemic

Recently opened Mercy Hospital treated victims

Typhoid Fever• Typhoid indicated the need for water treatment in Pittsburgh

• Pittsburgh 1907: city population – 535,330 typhoid cases – 5,652 typhoid deaths – 648 typhoid = 7% of all city deaths

• Typhoid death rate for Pittsburgh - (121 deaths/100,000 population)

• Typhoid death rate for 56 US cities - (31 deaths/100,000 population)

Typhoid Deaths per 100,000

Typhoid Fever

• Residents urged to boil water

• Bottled water usage among highest in US

• Immigrants ignored boil water advisory “You cannot make the foreigner believe that Pittsburgh water is unwholesome”

Typhoid Fever

• By 1900 – More than 350,000 inhabitants

in 75 communities upstream of

Pittsburgh were discharging

untreated sanitary and industrial

wastes into Allegheny River

Drinking Water Treatment

• Typhoid statistics and obvious contamination of river water prompted

calls for water treatment

Drinking Water Treatment

• Three Options -

1) Accept status quo

2) Obtain water from uncontaminated upstream source

3) Filtration

Drinking Water Treatment

• 1847–Water filtration first suggested

• 1894–Joint Commission of Chamber of Commerce, Allegheny Medical Society, Engineers’ Society of Western PA, and Iron City Microscopical Society, recommended filtration & constructed pilot filter

“Pittsburgh and Allegheny City water supplies are not only not up to standard but are pernicious”

Drinking Water Treatment

• 1896 – Council appointed Filtration Comm.

(published report recommending

slow sand filtration)

• 1899 & 1904–voters approve bond issues

• 1904 – construction of filter plant begins

Slow Sand Filtration Plant

• Original plant consisted of –

Ross Pump Station

Sedimentation basins

46 then 56 Slow sand filters

Clearwell

ALLEGHENY RIVER INTAKE

Ross Pumping Station (early 1900’s)

Ross original steam pumps

Ross original steam pumps

Filtration Plant Sedimentation Basins (Early 1900’s)

Construction of Slow Sand Filters (Circa 1905)

Construction of Slow Sand Filters (Circa 1905)

Completed Slow Sand Filters

Maintenance of Slow Sand Filters

Isometric view from Highland Park of three pumping stations and filtration plant of the City Water Supply.

In 1923, the treatment plant had the distinction of being the largest sand filtration plant in the world.

Heinz Sauerkraut Factory

Heinz Cabbage Field

Additional Improvements• 1911 – chlorine disinfection initiated

• 1912 – Southside served by Highland Res. #2 Mission Pump Station built (South 29th St PS abandoned)

• 1914 – Cabbage Hill Res & Aspinwall Pump Station built (Montrose PS, Troy Hill PS,& Troy Hill Res abandoned)

• 1920s – McNaugher & Brashear Reservoirs built (Montgomery, Lafeyette, & Greentree Tanks abandoned)

Effects on Public Health

• 1907 – 3800 typhoid cases & 373 deaths

• 1915 – 146 typhoid cases & 21 deaths

Typhoid Deaths per 100,000

St Patrick’s Day Flood - 1936

• Worst flood in Pittsburgh history

• By March 1 – 53 in. of snow vs 28 in.

• March 16/17 – 450F & 2 in. rain

• March 18 – Rivers crested at 46 ft. (normal pool = 16 ft.)

• 15 feet of river water on Golden Triangle streets

St Patrick’s Day Flood - 1936

• Deaths – 153 throughout Ohio Valley 69 in Pittsburgh region 45 in City of Pittsburgh

• $250 million damage

• No electricity for 1 week

• Numerous fires

• Widespread loss of gas, telephone, & transportatio

St Patrick’s Day Flood - 1936

• March 18 – Flood waters inundated Ross, Aspinwall, & Brilliant Pump Stations

• March 20 – stored drinking water began to run out

Higher altitude neighborhoods lost water pressure & supply

St Patrick’s Day Flood - 1936

• March 20 – Brilliant Pump Station resumed operation

• March 21 – Ross Pump resumed operation

• March 23 – Aspinwall Pump Station resumed operation • Much of distribution system never lost water service due to extensive storage capacity

• Backup water provided to 30 hospitals

St Patrick’s Day Flood - 1936

• Mitigation steps following flood-

Series of 9 flood control dams & reservoirs constructed on Allegheny

Pump controls elevated

Future plant additions built above flood plane

More Recent Improvements

• 1950’s – Chemical treatment initiated

• 1962 – Clarifier constructed

• 1969 – Rapid sand filter plant built

• 1990’s – Reservoirs covered

• 2002 – Membrane filtration plant built

Highland Reservoir #2

Membrane Filtration Plant

Highland Reservoir #1

THIRD CENTURY (emphasis on water quality, sustainability,

& green technology)

• 1984 – PWSA formed

purpose = oversee $200 million capital

improvement program

• 1995 – Pgh Water Dept became part of PWSA

purpose = manage day to day

operations & maintain

extensive infrastructure

Regionalization

• Major goal – sell water regionally

• Current customers: Fox Chapel Blawnox Reserve Township Aspinwall Millvale Hampton Township (partial)

Major Challenges

• Increasingly stringent water quality regulations

• Maintain aging infrastructure

• Source water protection

• Energy optimization (e.g., hydroelectric energy generation)

Pittsburgh Water Treatment Plant