WaterNow is excited to announce a new Accelerator Project in Southwest Pennsylvania!
Through Project Accelerator, we partner with communities and water agencies to champion sustainable, innovative water solutions. As part of our developing regional work in Southwest Pennsylvania, we have selected a new project, focused on stormwater management in this region.
Borough of Sharpsburg: Supporting the Development of a Comprehensive Stormwater Management Plan
The Borough of Sharpsburg, located about five miles northeast of downtown Pittsburgh, along the Allegheny River, sits at the bottom of four watersheds, making it one of most flood-exposed municipalities in Allegheny County. The Borough is seeking to identify the most impactful areas and corresponding solutions – including green stormwater infrastructure solutions – that are ripe for investment to mitigate flooding. A comprehensive stormwater management plan would empower the community to use limited tax dollars to leverage grant funding to make the biggest impacts to protect the health and safety of residents, properties, and public assets. This project will generate a request for proposals and an estimated planning budget, positioning Sharpsburg to create an innovative and comprehensive stormwater management plan that will guide the Borough’s stormwater, parks, development, and capital improvement efforts for the next 25 years. WaterNow will work with Sharpsburg to research exemplary municipal stormwater management plans to inform this request for proposals; prioritize relevant recommendations of the Community Vision Plan, River Bend Comprehensive Plan, and Sharpsburg Climate Action Plan; identify local policies and programs to consider; and develop community outreach and engagement best practices that empower local stakeholders to engage with local stormwater issues.
Looking to Future Opportunities
As always, this selection process was exceptionally challenging, as we received many strong and creative applications for support on a wide variety of projects. If we could, we’d select every single one of them. It’s exciting to see so many communities from across the region developing innovative approaches to addressing stormwater management challenges. We look forward to adding this round of projects to the library of examples and resources available on our website, and encourage communities to keep an eye out for future application rounds.
Many thanks to The Heinz Endowments and Pisces Foundation for their support, which makes this work possible.
The Heinz Endowments seeks to help the region thrive as a whole and just community, and, through that work, to model solutions to major national and global challenges. The organization is devoted to their mission of advancing their vision of southwestern Pennsylvania as a vibrant center of creativity, learning, and social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Their work is supported by reliable data based on equitable, results-focused goals to cultivate a world where all are treated with fairness and respect and have the opportunity to reach their fullest potential.
The Pisces Foundation’s mission is to advance strategic solutions to natural resource challenges and prepare the next generation by supporting environmental learning. They collaborate, innovate, and work respectfully in their community, and support early movers, innovative ideas, and bold leaders and organizations, adapting based on what they learn.