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The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and the Department of Environmental Protection, Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, and the Pittsburgh Steelers teamed up to encourage Pennsylvanians to “Pick Up PA” ahead of the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh in April. The 2026 Pick Up Pennsylvania litter cleanup initiative is a collaborative effort between PennDOT, and DEP, and Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful that gives Pennsylvanians the opportunity to keep their communities clean and free from litter.

“With the eyes of the world pointing at the Commonwealth, we are eternally grateful to our committed volunteers for helping us Pick Up PA,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll. “We are all stewards of our environment. I encourage everyone to get involved in Pick Up PA, and, if you own a business, consider sponsoring a roadway in the Commonwealth.”

“One of the key parts of DEP’s mission is partnership, and it is thanks to tremendous partners like Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, PennDOT, Adopt-A-Highway sponsors, and so many others that we are fighting litter in Pennsylvania,” said DEP Secretary Jessica Shirley. “Thanks to volunteers across the Commonwealth we are ready to keep Pennsylvania and America litter-free for the next 250 years.”

The 2026 Pennsylvania tourism season – including the NFL Draft, PGA Championship, FIFA World Cup, MLB All-Star Series and America250PA – is expected to bring more than 209 million travelers to the Commonwealth with 600,000 fans expected for the Draft in Pittsburgh alone.

Through PennDOT’s Sponsor-A-Highway program, local businesses and organizations can secure agreements with a PennDOT vendor who uses skilled maintenance forces to remove litter on roadways such as interstates and expressways, especially in areas where volunteer litter groups cannot safely pick up litter. Sponsors are recognized with a newly designed roadside acknowledgement sign displaying their business name and logo, and also listed on PennDOT’s website.

In 2025, 81,500 volunteers participated in Pick Up Pennsylvania. Over 4 million pounds of litter and trash were picked up, 6.1 million pounds recycled, and nearly 63,000 trees, flowers and other greens were planted.

A 42-foot fiberglass houseboat left on the North Shore. A submerged steel barge underwater in the Monongahela River. A motorized recreational boat filled with fuel grounded on Sycamore Island where spiny soft shelled turtles swim. These are just a few of the around 25 abandoned and derelict boats on Pittsburgh’s waterways, according to a recent assessment by Three Rivers Waterkeeper.

Abandoned boats can make the rivers risky. Some break free and drift into river traffic along with floating coolers and life jackets. Paint and insulation break down and leach into water. Other boats leak fuel and other fluids. Those docked outside the stadium become public safety hazards for rowdy, curious crowds.

For years, local law enforcement and the Fish and Boat Commission struggled to remove them due to a lengthy legal process, liability risks to the municipality and only slight penalties for the boat owners. But last July, the state of Pennsylvania and cuts down on the time from discovery and disposal. Owners face big fines if they don’t remove the boat and get stuck with the bill for its removal.

Local government, law enforcement, waterways organizations and marine salvage companies have been at work surveying the problem, prioritizing problem boats and sketching out what the removal process looks like at each stage. While they’ve taken out a few boats, finding the money to pay for the costly disposal remains a challenge.

The new law has “real teeth behind it,” according to Michael Hills, president of the Pittsburgh Safe Boating Council. “If you've abandoned your boat, you better be ready for it, because it's gonna cost you. That's the good stuff. The tough part is, a lot of people that have a boat like this, that decide to abandon it are abandoning it because they can't afford to fix it.”

Act 28 lays out how to identify, manage and remove abandoned, at risk and derelict boats for municipalities and law enforcement. There’s a 14-day notice period and then owners have 30 days to remove the boat. If they fail to do so, they face misdemeanor charges of up to $2,500 and are responsible for the restitution charges of removing and disposing of the boat, which can range from $5,000 to $20,000 per boat, according to Hills.

The law also limits the liability municipality and law enforcement agencies previously could’ve faced when removing an abandoned boat, which is “huge,” according to Mark Sweppenhiser, director of boating at the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the agency that oversees this process.

“No one wanted to take action and then find out that they have to buy someone a boat because they damaged a boat,” Sweppenhiser said. “It's very counterintuitive for the municipality to take action if they're gonna be held liable for all the damages that happened to a boat that would've happened otherwise if they didn't take action. So it was kind of a catch-22.”

The Pittsburgh Safe Boating Council put together a committee including marine salvage contractors, the Port of Pittsburgh commission, legal council and local municipalities to identify what the process looks like and who handles each step.

“It's one thing to have a law, it's another thing to pull a boat and deal with it,” Hills said. “Raise the boat, tow the boat, barge the boat away, remove fluids, take it to a site, dismantle, destroy it and landfill it.”

So far, they’ve removed four boats in the Pittsburgh-area, according to Hills.

Getting a boat to shore in many cases requires specialized equipment to resurface the boat and drag it to shore and tow it away. But not every community has those kinds of contracts and resources available, according to Sweppenhiser. And those salvers need to be paid.

“A lot of these places are small municipalities,” Sweppenhiser said. “They have limited funds and, and ability to do these things. A lot of these boats were junk and trashed. They have no value, so it ends up being a burden on the municipality.”

The biggest problem, according to Hills, is recouping the costs of pulling in those abandoned vessels. Hills is trying to raise $50,000 as seed money through grants and donations to set up a fund to pay salvers to pull up a steady stream of abandoned boats in the Pittsburgh area.

Some of the most contentious and visible derelict and abandoned boats sit on the North Shore wall at the confluence of the Three Rivers. Act 28 only applies to vessels on public property, leaving private property owners stranded. But the City of Pittsburgh has entered into an agreement with the Sports and Exhibition Authority to take over North Shore Riverfront Park, making it public property.

“Trust me when I tell you that those boats that are tied there right now will not be there for the [NFL] Draft [in April],” Hills said. “And our goal is to make sure they never come back.”

WESA’s Tom Riese contributed to this story.

More than 90,000 Pennsylvania American Water customers are under a boil water notice as of Saturday morning.

According to PAW, an early-morning power surge depleted water storage at the tank near the Aldrich Water Treatment Plant in Elrama.

This also results in a loss of water pressure within the distribution system, and that could lead to contamination entering the system through backflow or back siphonage.

A Pennsylvania American Water spokesperson later confirmed to KDKA-TV that the boil advisory was the result of a water main break in Elrama, Washington County, on Friday night. The boil water advisory applies to customers in both Allegheny and Washington counties.

Pennsylvania American Water said that normal electrical service has been restored, and they are collecting and analyzing water samples for further testing.

"According to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection guidelines, water samples must be collected to test for bacteria in the distribution system. The first samples are taken on the day when the issue has been corrected, and then another set of samples is taken in the next 24 hours," the spokesperson said.

Two consecutive days of clean test results are required before DEP will allow the advisory to be lifted. The process takes 18 to 24 hours for test results to come back from the laboratory, so final lab results to lift an advisory can take several days after the initial event.

Customers can enter their address and view a map to see if they're affected by this advisory at this link.

Under a boil water advisory, you are asked to bring all water to a rolling boil and let it boil for one minute. This includes all water, including water for drinking, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and food preparation.

Contaminated water can cause bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections, which can lead to nausea, cramps, diarrhea, and other ailments.

More information can be found on Pennsylvania American Water's website at this link or by calling their customer service center at 800-565-7292.

In:

A boil-water advisory is in effect until further notice for 95,000 Pennsylvania American Water customers in parts of Allegheny and Washington counties.

Company officials on Saturday said a power surge near a treatment plant led to the issue.

Early Saturday, “a power surge caused a depletion of water storage at a tank near the Aldrich Water Treatment Plant in Elrama, Washington County, resulting in loss of positive pressure within our distribution system,” the utility said in a news release. “A loss of positive water pressure is a signal of the existence of conditions that could allow contamination to enter the distribution system through backflow by back-pressure or back-siphonage.”

Pennsylvania American Water is advising customers in the following areas in Allegheny County to boil water before drinking it, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth, or preparing food: Bethel Park, Bridgeville, Clairton, Dravosburg, Elizabeth Township, Elizabeth Borough, Glassport, Jefferson Hills Borough, Liberty, Lincoln, North Fayette, South Fayette, South Park, Upper St. Clair and West Elizabeth.

In Washington County: Amwell, Buffalo, Canonsburg, Canton, Carroll Township, Cecil Township, Chartiers, Washington (city), Claysville, Cross Creek, Donegal Township, East Washington, Fallowfield, Finleyville, Forward Township, Green Hills Borough, Houston, Jefferson, Monongahela, Mount Pleasant, New Eagle, North Franklin, North Strabane, Nottingham, Peters Township, Somerset Township, South Franklin, South Strabane, Union Township and West Middletown.

Customers can determine whether their addresses fall under the advisory at tinyurl.com/pawadvisory.

Company officials said water should be brought “to a rolling boil, let it boil for one minute and cool before using” or substituted out for bottled water.

Inadequately treated water, they cautioned, could contain disease-causing organisms including bacteria, viruses and parasites, resulting in symptoms such as nausea, cramps, diarrhea and associated headaches. Anyone experiencing those symptoms on a persistent basis should seek medical attention.

Infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with severely compromised immune systems face higher risk. General guidelines on ways to lessen the risk of infection by microbes are available from EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.

Normal electrical service has been restored and the utility company is in the process of collecting and analyzing water quality samples. Repairs were expected to take about 20 hours.

“We will inform you when the corrective actions have been completed and you no longer need to boil your water,” the company said in its statement.

For more information, visit pennsylvaniaamwater.com and select “alerts” or contact Pennsylvania American Water’s customer service center at 800-565-7292.

First Published: February 7, 2026, 6:04 a.m. Updated: February 7, 2026, 6:20 p.m.

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Join Sustainable Pittsburgh for a February 3 webinar

This timely webinar examines the rapid growth of AI data centers and what it means for energy systems, communities, and our environment.

As demand for artificial intelligence accelerates, data centers are expanding across the country.

They bring economic opportunity alongside significant electricity use, water demand, and infrastructure impacts. For regions like Pennsylvania, these facilities raise important questions about grid reliability, land use, emissions, and long-term sustainability.

This session will explore how data centers operate, the scale of their environmental footprint, and the policy tools available to guide development in more energy-efficient and climate-aligned ways.

Speakers will share examples from across the country, discuss emerging approaches to clean energy procurement and efficiency, and examine the role of state and local decision-makers, utilities, businesses, and advocates.

We’ll also consider how thoughtful planning today can support economic competitiveness while advancing environmental responsibility tomorrow.

Click Here to register and for more information.

Visit the Sustainable Pittsburgh website for more information on initiatives, programs and upcoming events.

Related Articles This Week:

-- House Energy Committee To Consider Bill Giving PUC More Authority To Regulate A.I. Data Centers Jan. 26; Hearings On Related Bills Jan. 26 and Feb. 2 [PaEN]

-- Utility Dive: PJM Updates 20-Year Forecast Of Electricity Demand Growth, Reducing Short Term Growth Estimates By Up To 2.6%, Increasing 2035 Estimate By 3.3% [PaEN]

-- PJM Interconnection: 2025 Year In Review Part III: Planning Prepares For Burgeoning A.I. Data Center Electricity Demand [PaEN]

-- PennTAP Now Accepting Applications For RISE PA Decarbonization Grants For Small, Mid-Sized Manufacturers [PaEN]

-- Sustainable Pittsburgh Hosts Feb. 3 Webinar On A.I. Data Centers - Energy, Infrastructure, Policy Implications [PaEN]

-- ReImagine Appalachia Hosts Feb. 5 Webinar On Catching Heat: Opportunities, Challenges Of Using Waste Heat From A.I. Data Centers [PaEN]

-- Cameron County Chamber Of Commerce To Install Solar Energy Installation At The Artisan & Economic Innovation CenterTo Offset 100% Of Energy Consumption [PaEN]

-- Pennsylvania Solar Center: Jan. 23 Webinar On State Solar For Schools Grants & Free GET Solar Schools Technical Assistance [PaEN]

-- PA Leads The Nation In Constructing Federally Funded Electric Vehicle Charging Stations With 28 Now Open; Deadline For New Applications Jan. 30 [PaEN]

-- Center For Rural Pennsylvania: Number Of Electric Vehicles, EV Charging Stations Per County ]

NewsClips:

-- City & State PA Guest Essay: Your Energy Bill Keeps Rising, Here’s What We Can Do About It - By Rep. Elizabeth Fiedler (D-Philadelphia), Majority Chair, House Energy Committee

-- PUC Approves Rate Increases For Wellsboro Electric (18.1%), Valley Energy-Gas (12.2%), Citizens’ Electric Of Lewisburg (6.8%)

-- Marcellus Drilling News: US EIA Predicts Price Of Natural Gas To Dip 2% In 2026, Increase 33% In 2027 Driven By LNG Gas Exports [PDF of Article]

-- Marcellus Drilling News: Expand Energy CEO: Natural Gas Drillers Won’t Add New Production At $3.50 Gas Price-- $4.00 to $4.50 Is Needed To ‘Activate Supply Growth’ [PDF of Article]

-- Spotlight PA: Many PA Residents Don’t Want A.I. Data Centers In Their Communities; PA State Leaders Are Welcoming Them

-- Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader: Dallas Twp. , Luzerne County Residents Fill Public Hearing Space In Support Of A.I. Data Center Zoning Ordinance Limiting Centers To Industrial Zones

-- WITF: Republican Candidate For Governor Stacy Garrity Says ‘A Lot Of Areas’ In Rural PA Could House Data Centers For A.I. Growth

-- Scranton Times - Chris Kelly Opinion: A.I. Data Centers Call For Hawks, Not Canaries [PDF of Article]

-- Scranton Times - Chris Kelly Opinion: DEP Hearing Exposes Gravity Of The ‘Comically Speculative Nature’ Of A.I. Data Center Development [PDF of Article]

-- Capital & Main - Audrey Carleton: Will Homer City, An Old Pennsylvania Coal Town, Get A Reboot From 3,200 Acre A.I. Data Center Campus?

-- TribLive: TECfusions Announces First Tenant In Upper Burrell Twp. A.I. Data Center In Allegheny County; 10 MW Needed, Scaling Up To 1 GW

-- AP: Microsoft Pushes Big Tech To ‘Pay Our Way’ For A.I. Data Centers Amid Rising Opposition [PA Highlighted]

-- Talen Energy Buys 3 Natural Gas Power Plants In Ohio, Indiana To Service Growing Data Center Demand

-- Wall Street Journal: America’s Biggest Power Grid Operator [PJM] Has An A.I. Program - Too Many Data Centers Threaten To Max Out Generation Capacity, Rate Increases Anger Consumers [PDF of Article]

-- Public News Service: Clean Energy Boom Adding Much-Needed Electric Generating Capacity To Grid In PA Threatened As Federal Funding Stalls

-- Post-Gazette - Anya Litvak: EOS Energy Storage Company Calls A.I. Data Centers An ‘Accelerant’ For Company’s Batteries

-- Utility Dive: US Senate Bill Would Exempt Fully Isolated A.I. Data Centers, Other Large Loads From FERC, DOE Regulation

-- AP: US Carbon Pollution Rose In 2025, Experts Blame Cold Weather, High Natural Gas Prices, Data Centers

-- Post-Gazette: Sen. McCormick Says He Will Recuse Himself From Issues Specific To Facebook/Meta With His Wife’s New Role As Meta President

[Posted: January 16, 2026] PA Environment Digest