'Up close and personal,' officials paddle for the future of the Allegheny River

Advocates of the Allegheny River hope getting state and federal officials into the water will emphasize the need for more attention and funding for recreation and commercial use on the waterway.

Local, state and federal officials paddled kayaks Friday morning from the Springdale to Harmar marinas, through Lock 3 on the Allegheny River in Plum, in an effort to raise awareness of the river’s economic and recreational impacts in the region.

“We’re about embracing the rivers, building these trails, having the recreation of the kayaks and all the things we do,” said Rich Fitzgerald, executive director of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission and former Allegheny County executive. “We’ve got to make sure we continue to invest.”

The trip was coordinated by Friends of the Riverfront, the Southwestern Pennsylvania and Port of Pittsburgh commissions, and the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and its Fish and Boat Commission.

Matt Pavolsky, public relations manager for the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, said locks along the Allegheny River are now considered “low use” or “low volume” because of a decrease in commercial river traffic over the past few decades.

In turn, funding for infrastructure repairs and maintenance has declined.

Lock 3, in Plum’s Barking section, is nearly 100 years old. And locks on the Allegheny River average about 4 million tons of activity per year — a number “far lower” than those on the Ohio or Monongahela rivers, officials with Friends of the Riverfront said.

That’s where the increases in recreational use of the Allegheny come into play, officials said. Channeling the river’s recreational and economic impacts can make it more attractive for funding that would be a boon to river towns, Pavolsky said.

Friends of the Riverfront estimate the Three Rivers Heritage Trail, which runs more than 35 miles mostly along Allegheny County riverfronts, had a $26.5 million economic impact in 2023.

Allegheny County has the most boat registrations by county statewide, according to data from the Fish and Boat Commission. Westmoreland ranks eighth and Armstrong ranks 30th out of 67 counties.

“We’ve seen that expand, and we want to protect that use of the river,” said state Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-West View. Her district includes much of the Allegheny River valley, up to Harrison.

Keeping locks open for recreational boating has long been an uphill battle. An Armstrong County nonprofit group, Allegheny River Development Corporation, raises money and works with the Army Corps of Engineers to operate some of the river’s locks on weekends because cuts in federal funding for the Corps leaves it unable to staff those locks without outside help.

ARDC, Friends of the Riverfront, Port of Pittsburgh and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, among other organizations, formed a group called “Save the Allegheny River” to advocate for federal funding to benefit the future of the river.

Williams said a decrease in staffing of the locks would be devastating to the communities along the river.

Among the 50 people who participated in the two-hour kayak were Fitzgerald and Williams, state Rep. Mandy Steele, and staff representing state Rep. Lindsay Powell, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.

“We had state agencies, elected officials, lawmakers’ staff members and community organizations all represented here today to not only experience kayaking firsthand through one of the locks, but to talk about the ways we can continue to work together to support initiatives that will preserve and enhance the vitality of our rivers,” Fitzgerald said.

Steele, D-Fox Chapel, said the event gave her a better understanding of the importance of keeping locks and dams open for recreational boating.

“The economies in the river towns are dependent on people being able to move up and down that river,” she said. “Seeing the locks up close and personal really gives you an understanding for how important they are.”

She said there is a lot of opportunity at the state level to drive funding to river towns for economic development and recreation. She pointed to recently awarded funding for regional riverfront plans in Cheswick and Tarentum.

Kelsey Ripper, executive director of Friends of the Riverfront, said access to the Allegheny River is crucial to the region’s economic future.

“We were founded to reconnect people to the rivers after decades of being separated from them by heavy industry,” she said. “We have seen communities rebuild their relationships to the rivers and, as a result, enjoy greatly expanded recreational opportunities that have, themselves, become a crucial part of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s economic story.”