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Feet outside the box Weeknights are left off more on their homemade WQED broadcast of all the Q magazine is made possible by grants from the home and Heinz endowment the Evelyn foundation the Richard King Foundation and the McEwen Foundation and the Pittsburgh Foundation and the head. Foundation Foundation funding is provided by UPMC health system. Difference in communities throughout western Pennsylvania. Each and every day we go beyond our walls and reach out to

the neighborhoods we serve UPMC Help System 1 8 3 8 3. And by the members of WQED in Pittsburgh Three Rivers tourist attraction or terrible toilet. Correspondent Michael Bartley continues his two part series on what experts say are Pittsburgh filthy Rivers tonight high school and even elementary students horses at home and karaoke collides with punk rock music right here in Pittsburgh. That story is from on cue music contributor Phil Harris. They With us look at things differently. On cue starts right now. Following

Karalee SB I'm Chris more welcome. Q Now where's the best place to buy a muscle car in Pittsburgh. The biggest sound waves where will you find the most unusual road sign. We've got all the answers in another installment of the best of the bird. Also tonight karaoke meets punk in Pittsburgh. And back to Nancy where are his he or she joins us for a look at long distance learning for high school and grade school kids. But first Stacy Smith has tonight's cover story Stacey. Carol and Chris thank you tonight we are talking about billions of gallons of bacteria infested sewage overflowing into the Three Rivers. Now last night on cue we reported that when it rains it pours into the rivers posing a public health threat and increasing the potential for contaminated drinking water. And tonight on cue correspondent

Michael Bartley continues the story with some proposed solutions. Michael Stacey as we learn solutions have to come because the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department. Are putting the pressure on you're telling local communities to rebuild and remodel thousands of miles of underground sewers. They're telling wastewater treatment facilities like Alka sand to expand to find ways to contain the sewage. But we also learned there are major obstacles and it could take up to 30 years to fix the problem. More than eight hundred local communities in 11 counties have the same problem. They properly contain raw sewage on a rainy day. Contamination from the sewage is making its way into our rivers and streams they flow into is the

source of drinking water for 90 percent of this region. Potential impact on public health it's impacting the environment that's also impacting on sewage overflow was a violation of the Clean Water Act and the federal government is telling western Pennsylvania communities they'd better come together and fix it or the feds will come and do it for the sewage overflow closes the rivers about a year posing a health risk to people coming into contact with bacteria tainted water. We know the rivers are a lot cleaner. These days to decades ago it would float straight into the rivers. So did industrial. But to this day the massive underground sewer system is so old and unreliable so much rainwater and too much raw sewage floods and

water treatment plants like Sam which can't handle the overflow so the untreated sewage still goes into the rivers. The EPA is right now on the go shooting with an eye on how to stop the suit. There are a number of options you can replace or you can rebuild sewer construct holding tanks to delay the excess flow. Alka san is planning a one billion dollar expansion to construct holding tanks to handle the overflow but it won't make much of a difference unless hundreds of local communities come together and figure out how to raise billions more to fix their unreliable sewers. Jan Lauer is project manager for a committee working with communities in 11 the western Pennsylvania counties.

Our committee is a volunteer organization that has come together actually proactively. We have the EPA as a partner we approached them and said Would you please join with us to help us develop regional solutions to the to the water and sewer issues that the that this 10 or 11 county region is facing because water does not respect boundaries it doesn't doesn't respect political boundaries and the only way you can really deal with investment strategies and approaches for making our water better for the region as a whole is to work together work cooperatively. But the price tag to get thousands of miles of underground sewer lines repaired could reach seven billion dollars. It's a massive regional cost. How could so much money be raised. There are no magic bullets. At one time there were federal construction grants that were available where a community might have available to them five million 10 million 20 million dollars. That is no longer the case that communities are going to have to do

what they can by themselves the burden is going to fall back on them. The three rivers whether Project is a nonprofit group working with 83 Allegheny County communities to raise the money. John Schomberg is executive director. I think as a region if we have 83 communities or 130 communities all delegate county speaking about the needs here together that's a stronger advocacy than individual talents trying to get the money. Separately but in all honesty with the majority the money to solve this problem is going to come out of the region. It's going to come from the right players. The rate payers are going to come out of homeowners. It's really the major source of funding for store operations for years down the road. In other words are we going to see water bills way higher. Yeah we can expect them to go up from what they are now. It's hard to guess Shumpert says don't expect the state or federal government to just hand over 7 billion dollars a clear reason why water bills will be going up and repairing thousands of miles of bad

sewer lines will be complex laborious and time consuming solution. This will take decades to fix. The process of installing infrastructure itself. It involves regulation it involves engineering IT and financing it involves a lot of strategy. But we need to be able to solve this monumental problem. I think so but it is it is a long term funding Shumpert says western Pennsylvania really has no choice. Not only does raw sewage in the rivers increase the chance of contaminating our drinking water. It is called the largest local health threat to local residents. Not to mention the federal government will take local communities to court to force them into fixing this problem. I think by getting the towns working together we have we can gain that control ourselves and come up with a plan that we can afford. Not one that's forced on us by federal courts could take 30 years to fix.

There is still an urgency because some see the cleanliness of the three rivers as the most promising asset spurring economic growth. To improve the water quality in the region to provide for that as I said the public health an economy and the environment such that we can provide the highest quality of life. Right now the Environmental Protection Agency is not commenting on the specifics concerning their negotiations with al-Kasasbeh but we know this. Once those negotiations and the EPA will open talks then with the local communities trying to get agreement on how to fix the problem the EPA will eventually decide if local plans to control sewage are adequate. And the federal agency gave me no deadlines in terms of when they will decide. Michael if the EPA the local communities in Elko same cannot agree on such a plan

can the EPA force these local communities in Elko sand to do something. Absolutely and that's a major point in all this and they have already shown the EPA that they're not afraid to do that they took Penn Hills to federal court in the early 90s Penn Hills was forced to eliminate overflows so they had to build storage tanks and the rest and the sewage builds and Penn Hills right now are the highest. And Allegheny County by the way Pittsburgh magazine has a very extensive article on this entire subject in the current issue of the May issue if you want to so you can read more about how they're looking. All right well it's a probably a sleep problem that is going to be solved one way or the other we're Whether people like it or not it's going to last for a long time is a problem. All right thanks Mike are coming up next long distance learning for high school even elementary school students after this look ahead to Thursday on cue. Is there really a B-25 bomber in the Mon river. Well Thursday on cue an in-depth report of one of Pittsburgh's favorite legends. We've got classified documents the Air Force response and witnesses

of the crash played back in 1956 and you'll see what divers are seeing as they resume their search on the mon river. The B-25 mystery Thursday. And we've got a live music a modern rock sound of Ashes to Ashes. Join us live at 7:30 Thursday on cue. Well you've heard about taking college level classes on the Internet. But what about high school even elementary students will tonight we're talking about something called the distance learning program with on Q's mind body and spirit contributor. Nancy Dr. Nancy rammer How are you. Good to be here again. You can hear students ears just standing up all over western Pennsylvania right now I mean I can learn without going to school I have unmotivated. And there are many programs in Allegheny County that students can do at home from distance learning programs. And we're here tonight to talk about some of the really interesting ones and some of the best ones on these are computer based. They are you know the Internet. You have brought someone with you too so we go deeper into the subject.

Yes. I brought with me tonight a doctor Donna dharna the executive director of the Allegheny intermediate. Welcome thank you for inviting me. Oh I'm sorry what is the I you know Allegheny intermediate unit is one of 29 educational service agencies that were formed in Pennsylvania 1971 to serve the five hundred one school districts our intermediate unit is the largest and we serve the 42 school districts in Allegheny County that other them Pittsburgh Public School which has their own. And what is the distance learning program. What about the distance learning program encompasses a number of ways to access education online electronically. And there are three that we're going to talk a little bit about tonight. What are those. The AI University is the first one and it's a an online courses for teacher education. The Pennsylvania learners online is our newest one and it's a cyber school for K-12

offering many different opportunities. And the community learning network is a fiber optic connection between six school districts in Allegheny County Plus a seventh site at our at our office. OK. And the university that's kind of an interesting sound what is that one could you tell us a little bit more about it. It was created to give teachers a chance to learn more of the original goal was to learn more about the academic standards and it was created to provide courses in reading and math and science that are aligned with the standards. So the teachers would learn how to teach to the standards. Very good. We now have about 30 electronic hours and the interesting thing about that it takes about 300 hours to produce one electronic hour for learning. So how do you monitor this. Is this all done at the same time each day or is this just a course you can go online to and how do you monitor that. The kids are doing this and they're doing the work. The term is called asynchronous.

It means that that they go in and do their work and then it's that the teacher comes in they're in in the student activity there's about 1 teacher to every 20 students and it works out to be a little less than that in the learning for the teachers. But it's they they access electronically through the web. It's web based learning. And they do their work and it stays there till the teacher comes and corrects it now some of that can be done directly with the teacher and interactively it. There are many ways to do it that's the exciting part of electronic learning. And the advantage is to know exactly what must be good for though. I mean who what types of likely candidate for this. Yeah. And then on the new Pennsylvania learners online the cyber school that we're beginning it could be students who are academically gifted and can take advanced courses. It can be students who need an alternative perhaps a pregnant or parent against a teen who needs or a student who's been expelled or

suspended from school. It can be students who just enjoy learning that way there that it's not for everyone. Some people don't enjoy that kind of learning because it's isolated. But for those who do it can be very effective. And Don I want to thank you for being here. It's been very interesting hearing a little bit about distance learning and if people want to know more about it is there a phone number that they can call for the Pennsylvania learners online. It's 3 9 4 5 9 6 0 is a hotline. There's also the Allegheny intermediate unit website which is a three dot net. Great. Thank you so much for being here. Dr. Graham or Dr. Janet Darnell I'm sorry. Now here is a question of what a local town has an outdoor auditorium shaped like an American flag. Chris can you answer that question. Well I can now Carol because I read all about it in the new edition of Pittsburgh magazine every year Pittsburgh magazine publishes a special Best of issue this year. Q staff and the magazine staff wanted to show you their pics right here

on cue. You're publisher of Pittsburgh magazine. I'm here at random Motors in Bellevue my choice for the best place to find a muscle car. They're big they're bad they're beautiful oh they're powerful. I'm David Solomon from Monkey magazine and I'm here in the city of Monongahela in what they call the Aqua Toria. It's basically a set of bleachers built into the riverbank. People come here to watch concerts see the fireworks just come and watch the river. But what's most amazing is from a distance this place looks like a giant American flag. What do you want to go with that. Ireland we've got India. There are maps from

everywhere here. Hi I'm Michelle and the absolute best place to find maps is here J.R. world. I've got Salzburg. I've got plenty. I always wanted to go to Nepal. But if you really want to go out of this world how about the universe. Our own little piece of it the Milky Way. We are here. Hey I'm Dave Rhodes. I'm the director for the show and I was a book the banter on Q and you may also see me every Friday with that other Dave and my best categories Best band name now I have two picks for this one and the first one is Kill me now you probably want to yourself Why is Dave standing in the bathroom tying us this well there's a very good reason because the automatics got their name while they were in the bathroom. You see now if you look up here the bass player was taking care of business if you know what

I mean he looks up sees Ulta magic takes a back to the band says I've got a great name. Delta Maddox now my other choice for Best Band name is silver tongued devil and I got that name one of three ways. You know let Todd Porter tell you why you know Motorhead Kristofferson record. Oh well you can smoke in a band. OK one of the truckers. Just pick one with your one whatever. All right OK so there you have it the Ultimate X and so we're tongue devil you know what maybe next year I got a better band name. Trash Can. I enjoyed the Manchester editorial assistant a Pittsburgh magazine and I'm here and around it with the best traffic line in Pittsburgh and for the sake of my mother. That's all I'm going to say it's ok let's face it. Pittsburghers loves a great big sandwich. Eric Seabeck producer WQED and I love them too and I have a hard assignment of trying to find the best great big sandwich in

Pittsburgh. I think my favorite is here at 18 0 5 Carson Street the place called fat heads. I make a sandwich here called the Fed which it's a mountain of corned beef and turkey with salami on top. They put on Swiss provolone they melt the whole thing get a good and hot. They put it on a post a giant bun. Then they dress it with hot pepper relish lettuce tomato onion Mayo throw in a pickle spear a mountain of chips and it's pretty good. They topped it with these two little all of to make it look like eyes because they call this thing ahead which on the menu it says relatively close to the size of your head not quite as big as my head but it's a really great sandwich. And here is the man behind the magazine publisher editor Chris Fletcher miss a lot of good stuff. Morning magazine. There's tons of stuff it's one of our favorite issues of the year but you know what. I'll get my car and pick you up we're going to get that sandwich. We're going to

have to split it on. I think we better split. I don't know make it big as my head or yours you know. You know comparing anything to the size of his head is a little scary. Actually it's a lot of fun and it was great working with you guys and pulling this package together look forward to next week when we show the next batch. It looks really good. Now you were going to reveal them a little bit. I want to keep the suspense and also the newsstand sales going OK and people could go out and buy the magazine and find out all about the best of the bird right away. Encourage them to do that. What I would guess you want to be is about this. The muscle cars were great. I know you had a fine. I did I did but I figured if I brought one home my wife would probably would. Well thanks for being here we look forward to next week OK. We'll see you then. All right coming up karaoke collides with puck right here in Pittsburgh but first here's a look at tonight's PNC pass community calendar.

Well you know how we say we look at things differently. Well tonight music

contributor Philip Harris takes it one step further. Well Bill not only shows what karaoke is like here in the burgh but he compares it to another musical John. Then you bore down the wall between audience and performer. The show is no longer on the stage but in the mosh pit that formed in front of it. Tonight we look at the distant cousin of punk rock where the performer is the

audience. Welcome to the world of karaoke. It's Friday night at Bob's garage in O'Hara Township. And these people are not here for the food or even the libations but more for a little wailing in the midst of the din. Do karaoke Why do you do it like so much fun. Here's what we do. I listen everybody don't have the nerve to do it. Even the mirrors don't help. And then I start thinking with my brain and not like that's what you sing karaoke. Yeah I know but I really enjoy it. You're right. They really

treat karaoke was born 30 years ago by the fun loving folks in Coby Japan. This type of serenading finally hit the United States about 15 years ago. That is if you don't count the 50s and 60s hit TV show Sing Along with Mitch Miller. My karaoke night riding on the high note of the karaoke wave here in Pittsburgh or karaoke jockey Lisa Bella. Three nights a week at Bob's garage alone and is now a full time karaoke jockey. So you probably see the probably a lot of trends in karaoke just like in popular any popular culture. What's the hot song right now. What is a very portable. It depends on the crowd type crowd the younger crowd they like to let the dogs out. Like you're basing everything from

country singer a very wide variety of singers here at this bar. The word karaoke derives from two Japanese words Kera meaning empty and Oakey meaning orchestra and orchestra like in no vocals. And since it's the singer not the song. Do you see any parallels between punk rock music and karaoke. My premise is that punk rock eliminated the wall between performer and the audience and karaoke actually eliminates the former because the audience is the performer. That's really stretching it. That's really stretching it. That's just core that's going for that one bottle. I can see your point but not if you do it at a price you're putting on better

as a primo K.J.. What kind of advice would you give to the first time karaoke performer just to get out. Have fun and just pretend like you're singing in your car and don't worry about anybody around you know when you're done. Well in case you're interested. Karaoke sings out three nights a week at Bob's garage Thursday Friday and Saturday. Hey if this TV thing doesn't work out we can go there you can entice is already even though I didn't sing but I did get John Burnett to sing with me. He said Rocky Top and I'm going Well that's all the time that we have for the night but we'll be back tomorrow. Now in the meantime you have three chances to catch a rebroadcast of on cue. Tune in weeknights at 11:30 weekday afternoons at 12:30 or you can log on to broadcast dot

com slash television slash WQED and watch streaming video on your computer. Ashes to Ashes performs live tomorrow night so we'll see them tonight. It has WQED the broadcast of all the Q magazine is may belong to the fold by grants from the

home of Hines and Ellis the Everly foundation the Richard King childish and the McEwen Foundation and the Pittsburgh foundation of the Henry L. Gilman foundation the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and the Grable Foundation and by the members of WQED wanted funding from cutest boy I can see. When you think about what you want from life let him see think about the financial services and advice to help you get there and see the thinking.