38 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 work and see if we can more effectively utilize those assets in service to growing community decision making and planning and resource allocation?” RiverWise uses the river as a framework for organizing collective action to bring investment and development opportunities into the county. Daniel and his team started by identifying three communities as strategic areas for focused investment, including Beaver Falls to the north along the Beaver River; Monaca at the confluence where the Beaver meets the Ohio; and Aliquippa which extends south along the Ohio River. From there, they established RiverWise with the hope of encouraging development projects designed to reconnect residents to the waterfront. The initial goal was to improve access, attract investment, and turn communities back toward the waterways they share. However, nearly a decade later, Daniel explains that those early ambitions carried unrealistic expectations. There were consistent political, environmental, and infrastructural challenges that obstructed these goals. RiverWise serves a county that is home to 47 municipalities as well as a county government. Each municipality has its own leadership, priorities, and constraints. This means that moving a riverfront project forward often meant building alignment across a governance structure that has become increasingly fragmented in the decades following post industrial closures. This pattern is common in many post-industrial Pennsylvania small communities. As industry declined, it was normal for political boundaries to harden as communities cling tightly to local control as an understandable means of survival. Municipal capacity constraints heighten this tension, making it difficult to move towards a more complex and collaborative governing structure. On top of the political complexity was the lingering industrial legacy. Beaver County’s rivers powered a massive industrial corridor for generations “that left all kinds of environmental and regulatory challenges,” says Daniel. Contaminated land, brownfields, overlapped with land-use designations make redevelopment costly and slow. The very sites that offered the most potential were also the most encumbered. In addition, the rail lines that once accelerated growth and movement now stand as physical barriers between residents and the water. “If you want to get to your river, you have to go over, under, or somehow through an established railroad line,” Daniel notes. This mismatch between built infrastructure and waterfront access is a
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