CM Wilson Update on Brighton Heights Water Issues with Pgh20
Published on August 07, 2025
July 25, 2025
Update on Brighton Heights Water Service
Following my recent meeting with Pittsburgh Water, I want to provide an update on the serious water service issues affecting Brighton Heights. Pittsburgh Water has acknowledged that the frequent outages and low water pressure residents are experiencing are unacceptable, and I fully agree. They are now taking concrete steps to address the root causes and improve how they communicate with our community moving forward.
Infrastructure Fixes Underway
The 16-inch main on Brighton Road is a critical point in the water system. When it is taken out of service to address a break or planned maintenance, many residents either lose water entirely or are left with just a trickle—especially those at higher elevations.
To improve this, Pittsburgh Water is:
-Preparing to open a key valve as soon as next week, which would supply an additional path for water to flow water via from McClure Ave if the Brighton Road line is shut. Before the valve is opened, Pittsburgh Water is confirming the additional flow will not create excessive water pressure.
-Identifying other valves that can be upgraded to automatic, allowing them to kick in immediately during pressure drops.
-Reviewing pipe segments for potential targeted replacement, based on break frequency and pipe age.
These changes aim to reduce the disruption from future emergency repairs or planned maintenance and prevent Brighton Rd from being the only water route north of the Woods Run Road intersection.
Communication Improvements
Pittsburgh Water has also committed to casting a wider net when sending out alerts. Until now, notifications only went to residents within the immediate area of the shutoff, , not to those who could potentially experience low pressure or near-total loss. That’s changing. They are developing the process to put this into place.
Additionally, Pittsburgh Water will launch a webpage to better communicate the issues and plans for improving service reliability in Brighton Heights. This will be shared with the community when available.
Residents should continue to use the service outage map on their website for active water outages and report service disruptions to their 24/7 Emergency Dispatch (412) 255-2423, press 1.
I’ll continue pushing Pittsburgh Water to follow through quickly, and I’ll keep you informed every step of the way.
Bobby Wilson
Councilman
City of Pittsburgh, District 1