A large group of Allegheny County political leaders pledged to work for clean air and crackdowns on industrial polluters in a document released Wednesday.
While local residents, environmental organizations and health professionals have long voiced concerns about the Pittsburgh region’s poor air quality, local officials have often feared that cleaning up the air would kill jobs.
But 63 state, county, city and municipal officials from across Allegheny County signed on to the pledge to fight for cleaner, healthier air. They endorsed a regulatory and enforcement crackdown on industrial polluters, calling for tighter emissions controls and stronger penalties and fines.
“I strongly believe that all elected officials have an obligation to fight for a healthy environment,” said Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor during a Wednesday morning news conference outside City Council chambers in the City-County Building, Downtown.
Mr. O’Connor, one of 11 signers of the pledge at the news conference, cited “scary stats” in a recent study that found the region ranked in the worst 2% for cancer risks from air pollution. He also said the county experiences health-harmful air pollution levels one out of three days.
“When City Council unanimously passed my Will of Council to support Allegheny County’s Health Department ‘s actions to prevent air pollution,” Mr. O’Connor said, “we sent a message to our constituents that they are not on their own in the fight for safe and clean air.”
Zachary Barber, a field organizer with PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, which recruited the political leaders for the letter, said the wide support from state senators and representatives, county and city council members and a dozen mayors, including Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, sends a clear message that the region is finally ready to shed its “Smoky City” image.
He said there was a time when elected officials were afraid to speak out about industrial air pollution because of fears that facilities would close rather than comply with health-based emissions standards.
“Maybe once there was a time where air pollution was just the cost of progress,” Mr. Barber said, “but today, in 2019, there is no reason why anyone should be forced to breathe dirty air that jeopardizes their health.”
Patricia DeMarco, a Forest Hills councilwoman, said the region has been struggling to reduce air pollution since at least 1947, an effort that, while partially successful, has been delayed by the myth that “cleaning up the air kills jobs.”
“That myth is done,” she said. “The only way forward is to encourage good paying jobs in a clean environment.”
She said a proposed shale gas well site at U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson steel mill in Braddock, the Royal Dutch Shell cracker plant in Potter, Beaver County, and widespread shale gas development in the region are steps backward that will add air pollutants and degrade air quality in populated areas.
“There should be no more sacrifice zones, no more tolerance of pollution as a way to make money,” Ms. DeMarco said. “We need to invest in a ‘green’ economy instead of a fossil economy.”
Erica Strassburger, a Pittsburgh councilwoman who once worked for PennEnvironment, said research shows air pollution shortens the lives of up to 30,000 people nationwide, and in Allegheny County, where air quality is worse, “we know we have a problem.” Despite that, she isn’t so sure the region has turned the jobs-versus-the-environment corner.
“We’re about there. There’s a potential groundswell for clean air and widespread public concern,” she said, adding that “we need to do a better job telling the story of the green energy economy.”
“Poor air quality affects our most vulnerable — young children, seniors, and those who live closest to large pollution sources,” she said. “It will take cooperation and political will, but we must work toward a future where good, high-paying jobs are also green jobs that help improve our air quality and our region, not diminish it.”
Pressure to rein in industrial pollution on the local level has increased this year following a massive fire in December 2018 that knocked out pollution controls at U.S. Steel Corp.’s Clairton Coke Works — which continued to operate for 102 days while repairs were made — and in response to rollbacks of federal environmental regulations by the Trump administration.
“We’ve been impacted by unhealthy levels of air pollution for a number of years,” said Duquesne Mayor Nickole Nesby, who signed the letter. “I stand now with my colleagues to make a collaborative effort to improve air quality in the Mon Valley and make sure the Allegheny County Health Department enforces emissions rules.”
State Rep. Austin Davis, D-McKeesport, and one of the signers, has introduced legislation that would increase the maximum fine for illegal pollution and require public reporting. And both Pittsburgh and Allegheny County councils have passed unanimous declarations of support for stronger enforcement efforts against U.S. Steel.
“We all know Pittsburgh’s history of industrial pollution, but many of our communities continue to live that history today. Every Pennsylvanian, regardless of race, class or where they live, has a right to clean air and water, and that includes the people of Pittsburgh,” said state Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District. “It is immoral that in this day and age we continue to struggle to breathe, that the very air poisons our children and elderly neighbors.”
An interactive map, released by PennEnvironment, shows the legislative, municipal, and council districts represented by political leaders who have signed the letter, as well as major pollution emitters in the region.
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1983 or on Twitter @donhopey.
First Published: August 28, 2019, 5:07 p.m.