BANKSHOTS™ BASKETBALL COURT
In 2022, Parks constructed a Bankshots™ basketball court at South Park. Players of all ages and abilities, including differently-abled participants, proceed through a course of angled, curved, and non-conventionally configured brightly colored backboards, banking shots off the Bankboards™ and through the rims. Bankshot™ sports are non-aggressive and entirely inclusionary because participants play alongside, not against, each other. The court was finished in the fall of 2022 and is now open for the public to enjoy. More programming and events will take place at the court in 2023.
SETTLERS CABIN ACID MINE DRAINAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM
The impacts and landscape scars of coal mining are evident throughout the Allegheny County Park system, and particularly in Settlers Cabin Park, where polluted water from abandoned underground mines discharges into the Pinkerton’s Run stream valley. In October 2022, the construction of a passive treatment system was completed to treat the largest source of abandoned mine drainage (AMD) water in the watershed. When the acidic mine water exits onto a hillside above the creek it also carries levels of dissolved aluminum and iron that are toxic to aquatic life. The treatment system intercepts and redirects the AMD water into a lined basin filled with 1,500 tons of crushed limestone. As the polluted water flows through the limestone, the pH changes from acidic to basic, triggering a chemical reaction that causes the toxic metals to form into solids and settle out of the water. Clean, filtered water leaves the limestone bed and is sent to Pinkerton’s Run. Periodically, a solar-powered control system will open a valve and drain the water within the limestone basin to a separate flush pond, carrying with it the settled-out aluminum and iron solids that will ultimately be harvested. The treatment system raises the AMD water from a pH 3 to 7 and is expected to remove 38 tons of acidity, seven tons of aluminum, and two tons of iron from the water annually, while adding 30 tons of alkalinity per year to Pinkerton’s Run creek.
BOYCE PARK RAIN GARDENS
Boyce Park is now home to two recently constructed rain gardens. The first was installed in 2021 in the parking lot of the Boyce Park Four Seasons Lodge. This rain garden was planted to manage stormwater runoff from the lodge’s half-acre lower parking lot and is densely planted with over 200 native perennials, grasses, shrubs, and trees. A second rain garden was installed nearby in 2022. The new rain garden is approximately 300 square feet and receives runoff from approximately 3,000 square feet of roadway. It is estimated that this rain garden will capture approximately 22,000 gallons of stormwater runoff annually. Altogether the two garden systems will capture approximately 238,000 gallons of stormwater runoff annually.
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