Last week, as part of the Our Water Campaign, Sierra Club members delivered over 500 petition signatures to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) calling for safe affordable publicly controlled water in Pittsburgh! It was the first meeting of the new PWSA Board of Directors (with three newly-appointed board members) and Our Water Campaign volunteers wasted no time sending a strong message to the board demanding safe, affordable and publicly controlled water in Pittsburgh.
Five Sierra Club members — including Mike Pastorkovich (Allegheny Group Chair) and Claudia Kirkpatrick (Chapter Water Committee Chair) — were in attendance as the Our Water Campaign called on PWSA to enact a moratorium on customer shut-offs, institute a customer assistance program for residents struggling with the current rate increases, and halt the practice of partial line replacements.
Mike presented the stack of over 500 petitions to the new PWSA Board Chair Debbie Lestitian.
We told the Board that only replacing the lead water lines up to the customer’s property line can drastically increase lead levels in customer’s water and that the Board needs to find a way to replace the whole service line. Other members pointed out that large commercial customers continue to receive water despite being behind on their water bills. The Campaign called for similar treatment for residential customers by instituting a moratorium on residential shutoffs.
There is no room for the “profit motive” in our water system and PWSA must stay publicly controlled. We expressed concern that the consultant hired by the city and PWSA to study the problems facing the water authority is led by one of the architects of Ronald Reagan’s privatization initiatives.
Sierra Club members are also taking part in the OWC’s door-to-door canvasses in neighborhoods that have a high number of partial line replacements.
Readers interested in participating should contact Tom Hoffman at tom.hoffman@sierraclub.org
Tom Hoffman works with Sierra Club members to fight for clean, affordable, and publicly-controlled water in Pittsburgh. If you would like to learn more or get involved, contact Tom!