Allegheny River Stewardship Project
The Allegheny River Stewardship Project is an effort by leading researchers, working together with concerned citizens of the Alle-Kiski Valley river communities, to determine the sources and types of river pollutants by monitoring the levels of toxins in fish living in the river. Learn more at: www.chec.pitt.edu

Project Goals

1. Engage river community members to become involved in the stewardship of the Allegheny River.
2. Understand the concentrations of important contaminants in river fish species, especially those that people eat.
3. Associate contaminants in fish with potential pollution sources.
4. Identify human exposures to these contaminants.
5. Understand the risks to human health and the environment from these contaminants and pollution sources.
6. Obtain and share data with policymakers so that there is action to solve identified problems and
7. Form strategic partnerships with stakeholder groups along the Allegheny River to help insure ongoing stewardship activities.

Project Duration

Actual river fishing (sampling) will occur in May and early June of 2008. The Allegheny Stewardship Project is expected to last until Spring 2009 when researchers will hold a series of community meetings on outcomes of the sampling results. At that time a strategy for community action to solve identified priority problems will be determined. 

Community Fishing Days: Come out to the river and catch some fish, have great fun and support a great environmental project! Tell your family and friends and bring them with you! Venture Outdoors will be providing kayaks, canoes, rods and reels. There will be an opportunity to purchase a fishing license on line at each site for those who don’t have one or forgot their license. Education on various aspects of our environment will be available!

• The University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, Alle-Kiski Health Foundation
• RiverQuest
• Venture Outdoors
• Rachael Carson Homestead

• Dr’s Patricia Eagon
• Talal El-Hefnawy
• Frank Houghton
• Jim Peterson
• Ravi Sharma
• Nancy Sussman
• Devra Davis
• Maryann Donovan

• Alle-Kiski Health Foundation
• The Heinz Endowments
• Highmark Foundation
• Healthy People-Healthy Places through the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute-Center for Environmental Oncology
• The Graduate School of Public Health-Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Background Information

Results of the Pittsburgh Fish Consumption Study (fishes sampled in the fall of 2005) indicate that extracts from the flesh and fat of catfish and white bass from the contaminated Pittsburgh Pool surrounding the City of Pittsburgh moderately proliferated the growth of MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cell lines indicating the bioaccumulation of Estrogenic Active Substances (EAS) and/or metalloestrogens in fishes. Also, significantly higher levels of mercury and selenium were found in channel catfish caught upstream at Kittanning as opposed to those caught in the Pittsburgh Pool. Twenty-three percent of fish samples from Kittanning had mercury levels above the EPA human health standard of 0.3 parts per million (ppm).

Power plant emissions are a major source of mercury, selenium and arsenic into aquatic environments. The plants located on the Allegheny River may be the source of higher mercury and selenium levels in Kittanning caught catfish; similarly industrial plant and municipal (especially from sewer overflows) effluent buildup in the Pittsburgh Pool could be the source of xenoestrogenic chemicals in the fishes caught there. But these are hypothesis and to further determine the sources of both the mercury and estrogenic substances more research, directly involving river communities, is needed. Additionally the fish caught at Kittanning pose a measurable risk to the health of semi- subsistence anglers and others who consume them and the boundaries of fish that are so highly contaminated with mercury needs to be determined so that fish consumption advisories can be accurately made. We also want to determine the estrogenicity of fish at other location points in the Alle-Kiski Valley, besides the original selected point at Kittanning to see if there may be more local sources of estrogenic compounds.

What Are the Expected Short and Long Term Outcomes of the Project?

1. To engage river community members through EOH efforts and those of other project partners in the planning, execution and data analysis portions of the project; specifically to teach both interested teenagers and community members the procedures associated with the catch and measurement, geographic positioning, gender identification, dissection, analysis and interpretation of results of the study. Expedition members will be encouraged to be critical members of the scientific team and will keep a log of observations of environmental problems.
2. To understand the different spatial concentrations, along major sections of the Allegheny River, of important contaminants (carcinogenic, EDC-estrogenicity and /or toxic) of environmental public health significance in sentinel fish species including the organic and inorganic forms of mercury and arsenic, metalloestrogens such as cadmium, selenium from fly ash leeching, other heavy metals and the ability of extracts to make MCF-7 human breast cancer cell lines (proxy xenoestrogen measurement) grow by the analysis of new DNA produced and cells proliferated.
3. To correlate these spatial concentrations with proximity to industrial facility effluents, power plant fallout or fly ash pile leechate, and municipal sewer overflows, former industrial or known waste sites and/or areas of environmental degradation (deforestation, over development etc.).
4. To identify human exposures to the contaminants found in fish either through drinking water and/or fish consumption.
5. To understand the risk posed to human or ecological health from these levels of contaminants in fish.
6. To begin to understand the sources of emissions of contaminants into the Allegheny River and the contaminants fate in the environment.
7. To obtain data, evidence and other information that can inform policymakers in preparing for a regional approach to water management.
8. To form a strategic partnership with the RiverQuest, Venture Outdoors, The Rachael Carson Homestead, the Alle-Kiski Health Foundation and the Heinz Endowments to energize river communities, groups, schools and individuals to become stewards of the river. To raise awareness in this area of the centrality of the river to their health and well-being, not only in the sense of drinking water or fish consumption but for aesthetic, cultural, historical and recreational values.

December 2007

The Center for Environmental Oncology received the Leader in Environmental Health Award from the Pennsylvania Resources Council, one of the Commonwealth’s oldest citizen action environmental organizations.

The theme for this year's fundraising and awards dinner was "Nurturing Environmental Leaders." The Center has collaborated with the Council in a joint initiative to create a middle-school curriculum, student activities and teaching materials that will convey the Center's environmental health messages. The initiative will be launched in four selected Pittsburgh Public Schools during the 2007-2008 school year.

November 2007

The Center for Environmental Oncology congratulates Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and Dr. Jonathan Weinkle on their 2007 Children's Environmental Health Excellence Award, from the EPA's Office of Children's Health Protection.

CEO is proud to be a part of CHP's Lunch 'n' Learn series of educational lectures for pediatric residents. Click here to see upcoming CEO events.

September 2007

The Center for Environmental Oncology congratulates Rich Pagen on canoeing 82.7 miles across the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northeast Minnesota---and thanks to him for his generous donations and fundraising on our behalf!