National model of restoration: Nine Mile Run

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

17-Dec-2014

Contact: Joe Miksch jmiksch@pitt.edu 412-624-4356 University of Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH--A stream runs through it. A much nicer, healthier stream.

Pittsburgh's Frick Park is home to Nine Mile Run, a stream that had been known as "Stink Creek." From 2003 to 2006, the City of Pittsburgh and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers poured $7.7 million into restoring 2.2 miles of the stream and tributaries into waterways approximating what they were prior to urban development.

The project remains one of the largest urban-stream restorations undertaken in the United States.

What can this restoration teach us as we continue to deal with streams affected by urbanization?

The University of Pittsburgh's Dan Bain, assistant professor of hydrology and metal biogeochemistry in the Department of Geology and Planetary Science within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, says the project has made a difference and sets an example for other cities to follow. The evidence is tallied in Bain's paper, "Characterizing a Major Urban Stream Restoration Project: Nine Mile Run," published this month in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association.

Nine Mile Run, which is part of a watershed that drains 6.5 square miles of Wilkinsburg, Edgewood, Swissvale, Forest Hills, Squirrel Hill, and Point Breeze, had been truly abused by urbanization and industrialization. Toxins leached into the creek from a slag heap left over from the steelmaking process, sewer lines discharged into the water, and so much of the waterway had been buried in culverts or diverted from its natural path that Nine Mile Run had become toxic.

The three-year restoration project involved rerouting the creek to a natural pathway, reestablishing flora, creating areas to catch floodwater, and building natural "slash piles" and "snags" from cut-down trees to create bird and animal habitats. It also involved infrastructure interventions: adding rain barrels to individual's homes, preventing some storm water from overwhelming the stream, and fixing parts of the underlying sewers.

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National model of restoration: Nine Mile Run