Millvale Rain Garden

Stormwater management in Pittsburgh is a complicated and widespread problem. In building a city, even one as picturesque as Pittsburgh, people have created a lot of hard surfaces: roads, sidewalks, and parking lots. These surfaces do nothing to absorb water when it rains. During a heavy rain event, the accumulated water from these surfaces heads straight to the closest storm drain. If overwhelmed by a heavy rain or storm, our deteriorating storm water system can lead to sewage overflow in the city or into nearby rivers. Installing rain gardens in urban areas is a simple way to successfully reduce the burden on our city infrastructure and also replenish the local ground water supply.

GTECH worked with the community in Millvale to install a rain garden in the PNC Bank parking lot on Butler Street. GTECH oversaw the implementation in 2011 and assisted in additional planting and maintenance in 2012. This project continues to look great and manage storm water runoff from the adjacent parking lot. Youth from Heinz Youth Philanthropy helped to plant some additional plants in the garden and the Millvale Borough Department of Public Works has done a great job maintaining the garden.