Community based participatory environmental health research to improve water quality on a major water source in Southwestern PA

The Allegheny River Stewardship project is a community based participatory environmental health research project focused on water quality in the Allegheny River, PA. Key objectives of this project are to engage river community members to become involved in the stewardship of the Allegheny River; understand the concentrations of important contaminants in river fish species, especially those caught for consumption; associate contaminants in fish with potential pollution sources; identify human exposures and risk to human health from these contaminants; obtain and share data with policymakers to provide evidence for the necessary policy change to solve identified problems and form strategic partnerships with stakeholder groups along the Allegheny River to help insure ongoing stewardship activities. This project has engaged communities and individuals on the Allegheny River, through three community meetings, as well as numerous meetings with Angler groups and clubs, schools, boro and city government, environmental regulatory agencies and environmental organizations and non profits. Community input through pollution narratives provided by attendees at community meetings dictated sampling sites on the river. The fish sample was primarily acquired through Community Fishing Days advertised by flyer in local markets, libraries, community bulletin boards, mass mailings, news media, television and radio. Results of this project have brought attention to a large legacy waste site and reinitiated remediation efforts , new evidence on river mining monitoring techniques has lead to engagement with a state lawmaker writing legislation on river mining and finally greater trust and increased collaboration with the communities participating in the ARSP.