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A $13 Billion Power Plant Wants 30 Million Gallons a Day From the Mon
NextEra’s proposed 3.75 GW gas plant in rural Fayette County would draw an estimated 30 million gallons a day from the Monongahela River. We ran the numbers against actual river flow data, and looked past the headline figures on jobs and investment too.
Read MoreThe Public Has Turned on Data Centers, and It Crosses Party Lines
All year we have followed communities pushing back on data centers reaching for their water and power. New polling shows those communities are not outliers. Skepticism of data centers has become a broad, bipartisan American position, and it is only sharpening. Nearly 2 in 3Americans oppose a data center being built in their own community…
Read MoreFree Webinar: Meet the ‘River Livers’ Cleaning Pennsylvania’s Streams (Nov 16)
Some of the hardest workers in our rivers never move. Freshwater mussels, known locally as “river livers,” sit on the streambed and quietly filter the water around them. They are also among the most threatened animals on the planet. On November 16, you can learn what Pennsylvania is doing to save them. About 10 gallons…
Read MoreAI for Water: What It Actually Looks Like
We recently shared the big-picture policy questions around AI and water. Now here is the practical follow-up: what does AI in the water sector actually look like on the ground? The Water Center at the University of Pennsylvania has cataloged real, working examples, and the answer is more grounded, and more useful, than the hype…
Read MoreRemembering Franklin Kury: The Man Who Put Pure Water in Pennsylvania’s Constitution
In Pennsylvania, clean air and pure water are not just goals. They are constitutional rights. That is true because of one man, Franklin Kury, who died this August at the age of 89. Every clean-water fight in this state still stands on the words he wrote. Kury was born in Sunbury, along the Susquehanna, in…
Read MoreIt Is a Watershed Problem: Rethinking How We Manage Stormwater
By John Detisch, H2O Water Network For centuries we believed that engineering was our best way out of our problems. Dealing with stormwater has been no different. But the role of natural systems is slowly being recognized as a smarter way to manage water. Natural systems include forested watersheds, riparian corridors, aquifer systems, wetlands, green…
Read MoreA Westmoreland Township Writes Its Own Rules for Data Centers
On August 24, the Sewickley Township Board of Supervisors enacted a new ordinance governing data centers, giving the Westmoreland County township local control over how these facilities can site and operate. It is a small piece of municipal lawmaking with implications that reach well beyond one township. The short version Data centers are arriving in…
Read MoreDays Left to Comment on Pennsylvania’s Proposed PFAS Rule for Sewage Sludge
Pennsylvania is proposing, for the first time, to require testing of sewage sludge for forever chemicals before it gets spread on farm fields. The public comment window closes Wednesday, September 2, so anyone who wants a say has only days left. The short version DEP’s proposal would require wastewater treatment plants to test biosolids quarterly…
Read MoreSBA Disaster Loans Open for July Storm and Flood Damage, Nonprofits Eligible
The federal government has opened a lending window for Pennsylvania communities still digging out from the July 28 storms, and it is not just for businesses. Nonprofits, including watershed groups, qualify for some of the cheapest repair money available. The short version The Small Business Administration declared a disaster for the July 28 severe storms…
Read MoreFoundation for PA Watersheds Opens Fall Grants With $475,000 Earmarked for Raccoon Creek
The biggest fall funding window for Pennsylvania watershed work is now open, and this round comes with something unusual for our corner of the state: nearly half a million dollars set aside specifically for the Raccoon Creek watershed. The short version The Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds has opened its fall 2026 grant cycle. Letters of…
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