A month after Allegheny County’s controller warned of negative health impacts from partial lead line replacements, Pittsburgh City Council is looking to pause their construction.

Pittsburgh City Council will introduce new legislation at tomorrow’s meeting that will allow the city’s residents to enter into an agreement with the Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority (PWSA) to replace their privately-owned lead water service lines. The resolution is currently in the Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs, chaired by Councilman Dan Gillman.

“The city and PWSA are working with DEP on a consent order that would clarify how all parties can work together to systematically and clearly remove lead from city water,” said Tim McNulty, a spokesman for Mayor Bill Peduto.

On Monday morning in the Capitol Rotunda the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania and NeighborWorks hosted a press conference where they spoke out on the need to prevent budget cuts that would affect housing and community development programs.

The Pennsylvania House of Representative’s Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee Monday unanimously adopted a proposal by Rep. Mark Keller (R-Perry) that would further centralize and incentivize agriculture education in Pennsylvania.

The proposal, House Bill 944, would create a Commission for Agricultural Education, which will be overseen by both the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture. 

The House State Government committee and other legislators who are involved with related issues held a hearing at Susquehanna University to investigate the Susquehanna River Basin Commission (SRBC) and its fees and regulations in Pennsylvania.

All but one testifier identified problems with the fees and regulations that the SRBC creates on public and private large water sources in the commonwealth.

The SRBC was created in January 1970 through the legislatures of New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Federal Government to maintain and conserve the Susquehanna River basin through a compact. 

An audit of the Allegheny County Police Department (ACPD) found that the police force’s diversity numbers show an under representation within the ACPD of women and minorities in county communities.

That conclusion was one of several findings from County Controller Chelsa Wagner’s audit of the ACPD. Wagner’s office reviewed an array of the police department’s documents from Jan. 1, 2013 to Dec. 31, 2015 and conducted a series of interviews for the audit, which was released Thursday.