WHY CHARTIERS CREEK?

The Chartiers Creek valley, although located just a few miles from downtown Pittscurgh, offers breathtaking vistas and quiet solitude for those who seek its offerings.  It also offers cultural and social riches in the same magnitude.  Although, recovering from more than a century of impacts that have resulted from coal extraction, the water quality in.Chartiers Creek has exhibited significant improvement in the last decade.  Much of this improvement has been the result of grassroots efforts to inventory and remediate harmful discharges from the vast network of deep coal mines that underlay the watershed.  Efforts to reduce other sources of point and non-point water pollution have been initiated by local conservation groups and governmental agencies as well.  

These efforts are returning large dividends as water-based activities in the Chartiers Creek watershed have gained increasing popularity.  These include recreational and sport paddling, fishing, waterfowl observation and development of educational programs.  

An interconnected water / land trail will enhance these experiences and provide the basis for the future development of the concepts that are recommended in this study.