ALCOSAN history

Pittsburgh was organized as a borough in 1794 and incorporated as a city in 1816.

Born in Monongahela City in 1818, Verner lived most of his early life in the Fourth Ward of Pittsburgh.

In her book, "Old Penn Street", Agnes M. Hays Gormly recalled an 1823 wedding journey to Sewickley passing “Outer Depot, Pork House, Jack’s Run and Kilbuck” by carriage.

Because of the growing population, and the increasing need for water, the city constructed a pumped water system utilizing Allegheny River water and put it into service in 1828.

In 1841, he married Anna Murry and returned to Pittsburgh, becoming a partner in a brewing firm and later obtaining a charter for the Citizens Passenger Railways Company.

The small system at Cecil Alley was replaced in 1844 with an expanded system consisting of a larger pumping station at 11th Street and Etna and a larger reservoir (capacity = 7,500,000 gallons) on Quarry Hill.

In 1848, the continued expansion of the city to the eastern hill section forced the building of an additional reservoir (2,700,000 gal) on Bedford Avenue and a small pumping station to pump to it.

In 1851, regular passenger service commenced from Allegheny to New Brighton, 27 miles down the Ohio River.

In 1855, the British physician John Snow clearly demonstrated that cholera epidemics occurring in London could be associated with piped river water originating in sewage contaminated sections of the Thames River.

Originally part of Pine Township and later the southern boundary of Ross Township, this area, adjacent to the City of Allegheny and running south of the new railroad to Jack's Run, was absorbed into McClure Township in 1858.

In 1859, the first horse-drawn street railway west of the Alleghenies began operating between Penn Avenue and 34th Street.

Pork House expanded with the construction of the Ardesco Oil Refinery in 1862.

James Verner purchased land near the Pork House mills in 1864 for his Pittsburgh Forge and Iron Company.

Located along what is now Tracy Street in the vicinity of ALCOSAN’s employee parking area, the Ardesco Refinery was the scene of a tremendous explosion on August 18, 1866.

The town continued to grow and in 1867, 14 wards were annexed to the original city.

Additional pumping units were installed and a temporary pumping station was constructed at 45th Street and the Allegheny River in 1870.

In 1879 a 125,000,000 gallon reservoir (Now Highland #l) was put into service at the top of Highland Avenue and a river water pumping station to feed it (Brilliant Pumping Station) was erected on the river upstream of Negley Run.

On August 6, 1880, the firm reorganized as Oliver Bros. and Phillips, and soon thereafter became one of the largest manufacturers of iron bar in the United States.

The new pumping station at 11th and Etna was equipped with two steam driven pumps known as "Samson" and "Hercules" that had a combined capacity of 9 mgd (million gallons per day). These pumps functioned almost continuously until 1884, a period of 40 years.

Charles T. Schoen came to Pittsburgh in 1890, enlisting the assistance of Henry W. Oliver in establishing interest for his patented pressed steel railroad car design.

On March 26, 1897, he was awarded a contract to build 600 pressed steel cars for the Pittsburgh, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad, filling the order in just nine months while completing a $500,000 plant expansion.

On January 12, 1899, Schoen merged with the Fox Pressed Steel Company and reincorporated as the Pressed Steel Car Company.

In 1905, after years of intense argument concerning the design of the plant, construction began on a slow-sand filtration plant at the site of the present treatment plant on the Allegheny River near Aspinwall.

In 1907, Pittsburgh began sand filtration and chlorination of water supplies, and the typhoid rates began to drop.

With the consolidation of the Pittsburgh, Allegheny, and Monongahela Water Companies in 1908 the City faced the problem of merging three water systems and extending its filtered water service to a city divided by rivers.

Chlorine began being added for disinfection was included in the treatment scheme by 1911.

In 1912, Mission Street Pumping Station (in the Southside) was placed into service and replaced the antiquated South 29th Street Station, which was retired.

With the addition of the Schoen Manufacturing Company, the area continued to grow as a booming industrial center through the 1920s.

As early as 1930, the Pennsylvania Sanitary Water Board sought to compel Pittsburgh to submit a plan for a comprehensive sewage system.

In December 1937, Pittsburgh Mayor Cornelious Scully called a meeting of Allegheny County municipalities to discuss possible collective action.

The Allegheny Conference on Community Development was thus incorporated in 1944.

In 1946, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) was formed to study the needs of the region and to develop and submit a treatment plan to the Pennsylvania Sanitary Water Board.

The board further ordered cessation of sewage and industrial discharges by May 1947.

On February 9, 1948, the Authority released the first of five reports recommending an $82 million single-plant treatment system for Pittsburgh and the surrounding communities.

On April 12, 1949, the Borough of Pitcairn became the first municipality to return a signed long-term contract for inclusion in the Authority’s treatment plan.

By June of 1950, the Authority began preliminary core bores in the area of the treatment plant site.

Plans and specifications for the treatment plant were developed, and the official ground breaking took place on April 4, 1956.

In February of 1957, Executive Director Laboon concluded that the dead weight of the main pump station as designed was insufficient to keep the entire structure from floating under the hydraulic pressure produced under certain operating conditions.

Engineers overcame several initial operational difficulties, and in January 1960, the Authority was nominated for the “Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award” by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The second stage involved replacement of the outmoded slow sand filters in 1969 with a dual-media, rapid sand filtration system.

To address this critical issue, ALCOSAN and the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), in a unique partnership, joined forces to create the 3 Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Program (3RWWDP) in 1998 to help the 83 ALCOSAN municipalities address the region's sewage overflow problem.

2001: The Development of Basin GroupsThe Eastern, Northern and Southern Basin Groups were formed to help educate municipal officials, encourage communities to share resources and explore regionalization options.

1 Membrane Filtration Plant went online the summer of 2002 and has the capacity to produce 20 million gallons of water per day.

2004: Regional Compliance with Municipal Consent Orders In early 2004, all 83 communities signed municipal consent orders requiring assessment and repair of their sewer systems.