E Watch

As the founder and Chair, David Tessitor led E Watch to assist federal, state, county, and local agency officials with enviromental enforcement and monitoring of our region's environment.

In the process of investigating various problems with streams and wetlands in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, Dave uncovered numerous insufficiencies with environmental protection and enforcement.  At the request of US EPA and US Fish & Wildlife officials and with the assistance of Teresa Heinz, Dave organized a joint federal and state agency investigation which produced federal findings that southwestern Pennsylvania had the worst environmental enforcement and protection of streams and wetlands in the nation.

It was not until the fall of 2004 that any mention of the investigation appeared in the news media when an op-ed article, Weekend Perspectives:   The floods this time, appeared in the Saturday, September 25, 2004, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.   It took 14 years of attempts for David Tessitor to get the findings into the news.   In the end, Dave had to write the article himself, positioning it for publication in response to a natural disaster the week before.   (This powerful article is highly recommended reading.)

As the chair of E Watch, David Tessitor uncovered numerous other environmental violations and worked closely with local officials of a number of  municipalities in the Pittsburgh area.

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