Etna's Rain Garden

Sustainability

Etna is a place where Community truly matters.
Etna truly believes that community matters and is taking several steps to ensure its future and long term sustainability. Our efforts fall into a number of major catagories; Beautification, Blight Control, Land Reuse, Stormwater Management and Energy Efficiency.

Community beautification is a joint effort between the Borough and a number of volunteer resident groups. Our award winning gardens are planted and maintained by the Garden Club and the Garden of Etna. The Pride of Etna Committee orchstrates cleanup campaigns and other sprucing up projects.

Etna is controlling blight by demolishing abandoned buildings, participating in a county wide land bank, and partnering with Action Housing to build affordable housing. We are also converting a former sand and gravel plant into a riverfront park.
By leading the way, Etna is at the forefront of stormwater management and has been recognized for a number of its project. These projects include hosting a rain garden demonstration project, the rehabilitation of the School Street Public Parking Lot 11 which consists of a 20-square-foot high-rate biofiltration system that directs the infiltrated water into a 1,060-cubic-foot stormwater management storage unit and our current Green Streetscape project which is disconnecting many of our buildings from the combined sewage system.

As part of the Green Streetscape project the Borough replaced all of the antiquated street lights with high efficiency lighting. In addition, Etna has been working on converting the Duquesne Light Street Lighting To LED.

Through our efforts Etna Borough is among the first municipalities to become certified through the Southwestern Pennsylvania Sustainable Community Essentials Certification program. Etna is recognized at the Silver level of certification. The Sustainable Pennsylvania Community Certification is comprised of 131 criteria spanning 9 broad topic areas relevant to high performing local governments across economic, social, environmental, and civic engagement values. This Certification, developed by Sustainable Pittsburgh, is designed for municipalities that are working to save money, conserve resources and serve vibrant communities. In earning the Silver Certification, Etna is acknowledged for its progress in addressing such areas as community design and land use, energy efficiency, health and wellness, mitigating blight, intergovernmental cooperation, recycling and waste reduction, fiscal controls, and internal management and operations.
Certification

Volunteer Beautification Projects

Explore Our 18+ Gardens

  • The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society

    Community Greening Award 2010

  • The Pennsylvania Horticulture Society

    2013 Community Greening Award Winner

  • Rain Garden

    Etna's demonstration rain garden

  • Susan G. Komen Garden

     Planted in memory of Dorothy Flynn and all those who have lost their battle to cancer.

  • War Memorial Garden

  • Fireman's Garden

  • Spirit Garden

  • Mural Garden

  • Community Garden

  • Clock Garden

  • Bell Garden

  • Cabbage Hill Garden

  • Fugh Hall Garden

  • Route 8

  • 28 Garden

  • 28 Garden

  • Joan Crawford

  • Bette Davis

  • Marilyn Monroe

  • Jayne Mansfield

  • Mae West

  • Marlene Dietrich

Stormwater Management

Etna, being the most downstream community in the 67.3-square-mile Pine Creek watershed, faces a number of stormwater management challenges. These challenges include a combined sewer system, dedicated stormwater facilities, and direct runoff.  In an effort to minimize the effects of stormwater flooding Etna has implemented a number of stormwater management initiatives to control runoff and disconnect downspouts from the combined sewer system.  
Phase 1

Phase I

The first phase involved reconstruction of the east side of Butler Street between Bridge and Freeport Streets as well as the reconstruction of the north side of Freeport Street between Butler Street and Union Alley. This phase involved th installation of 12 street trees, 2300 cubic feet of underground storage that would promote infiltration, 3900 square feet of pervious pavers, downspout disconnection and restatement to new conveyances and related work. Storm water management is essential to water quality in our streams, creeks and rivers. It can also have a dramatic effect on drinking water quality as it reduces pollutants in ground water. As rain water travels over paved surfaces it picks up grit and debris including salt and other pollutants and deposits them into the combined system or into the ground. Collecting this rain water at is source helps to eliminate this from happening.

The project entailed other improvements and traffic calming/safety features: 562 feet of realigned curbing to create bump-outs, 4776 square feet of new concrete sidewalk, 403 feet of 12” wide  decorative ADA compliant grate and trench, tree grates, four new curb ramps and two new inlets to accommodate parking area drainage.
Phase 2

Phase II

The second phase will involve reconstruction of the south side of Butler Street between Winschel and Freeport Streets as well as the reconstruction of the south side of Freeport Street between Butler Street and Cherry Alley. This phase will involve installation of planting areas with 9 street trees, 2400 cubic feet of underground storage in two locations that would promote infiltration, 1800 square feet of pervious pavers in Love Alley, a “Rain Park” at 14 Freeport Street, downspout disconnections and restatement to new conveyances and related work. Phase 2 will also include planting areas adjacent to the municipal parking lot on Winschel Street. 

The project will entails other improvements and traffic calming/safety features: 554 feet of realigned curbing to create bump-outs, 6280 square feet of new concrete sidewalk, 660 feet of 12” wide  decorative ADA compliant grate and trench, tree grates, six new curb ramps and a new inlet to accommodate parking area drainage.
More on Streetscape
School Street Parking Lot Green Infrastructure Project

School Street Parking Lot Green Infrastructure Project

This Green Infrastructure design and construction project is proof-of-concept demonstration on the use of a proprietary high rate filtration technology  sited to utilize the Quaternary sands and gravels  formation.  It involves the retrofit installation of Green Infrastructure- runoff collection, 200 SF proprietary high rate bio-filtration, 1060 CF subsurface stormwater management storage units with infiltration, plantings- during the resurfacing of the existing 4200 square foot municipal parking lot.  Half of adjacent School Street was reshaped and repaved  to ensure  runoff was directed to the GSI facility. The project will provide partial capture approxiamately  0. 54 MG of estimated 1.5 mg runoff contributed annually by this catchment to the Etna Combined Sewer System.  The facility screening identified a high yield inlet via the Etna GIS where GSI could be most advantageously sited. The project is funded by a combination of Borough funds,  and a 3 Rivers Wet Weather Grant.

Full capture from the catchment under the 90/10 target would involve installation of an additional 4500 CF GSI facility in the Walnut Street ROW. The estimated cost for this additional GSI facility would be $190,000. The estimated cost is $ 0.22 per managed gallon.

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ETNA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORP.
437 BUTLER STREET ETNA, PA 15223
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