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Don Hopey can be reached at [email protected] or 412-263- 1983.
Fallingwater, recognized as the single best American architectural achievement of the 20th century, finally has a sewage system worthy of the pristine, creek-side environment celebrated in Frank Lloyd Wright's design.
Four years after a complaint was filed with the state Department of Environmental Protection about sewage discharges into Bear Run, the stream that tumbles over the waterfall next to Wright's cantilevered masterwork, a new sewage treatment facility has been built that does not pipe a drop into that Fayette County flow.
The $3 million, zero-discharge system consists of 2.5 miles of pipe, nine pumps and a unique microfiltration apparatus. It will handle not only the waste generated by Fallingwater's 140,000 annual visitors, but also serve as a model for development in the state's purest watersheds.
"We had a notion that we could use 21st century technology and should be a model for good stewardship since the conservancy requested that Bear Run be designated [by the state as] an Exceptional Value stream," said Larry Schweiger, president of the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Since 1963, the conservancy has owned the home Wright designed for department store owner Edgar J. Kaufmann along a secluded, rocky creek 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.
"We...