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Press Release – For Immediate Release
April 16, 2015
The taxpayers of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas are facing a billion-dollar public health crisis: combined sewage overflow. When storms pass through the region, there isn’t adequate space to collect all of the water resulting in stormwater being directed into sewer drains. This overwhelms sewage treatment plants which respond by sending stormwater and sewage directly into the rivers. According to the Clean Rivers Campaign: “90% of Allegheny County residents rely on our rivers for drinking water, so the flow of sewage and other pollutants into our rivers is a serious public health concern.” The State of Pennsylvania has recently granted an extension for local municipalities to upgrade their combined sewage system plans through green infrastructure to create a sustainable plan to deal with this dilemma. Green infrastructure can be utilized as an effective tool to combat combined sewage overflow. Two local examples are Larimer and Millvale; both neighborhoods have adopted models that include rain barrels and rain gardens to capture storm water as part of their solution.
DECO Resources is proposing to work with local municipalities and organizations to facilitate the design and implementation of a sustainably-minded plan. DECO Resources is a Pittsburgh-based company that was formed by environmental scientist Anthony Stewart and designer Mary Sullivan to explore green technology and environmentally sound business practices. Their team has excelled at working with educational programs and community outreach. The company has worked with more than two dozen local businesses over the past two years to apply sustainable solutions. Currently, DECO Resources is partnering with local groups such as The Door Campaign, SEED Aquaponics, and the Millvale Library to apply the use of aquaponics as part of a comprehensive solution.
Aquaponics is a combination of aquaculture, or the farming of aquatic animals, and hydroponics, a method of growing plants in mineral-rich water. The byproducts of operating an aquaponics system are fresh-grown herbs and vegetables that can be cultivated in confined urban spaces that lack clean soil. The DECO Resources team has collaborated with nine interns from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Masters program at Carnegie Mellon University to continue studying aquaponics and other technologies as part of a holistic solution.
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For further inquiries, please contact:
Anthony Stewart
President & Environmental Director
DECO Resources, LLC
744 E. Warrington Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15210
phone: 412.326.9783