As the convener of Southwest PA Grassroots Resident-Led Air Quality Town Halls, I am conveying the concern of many residents with whom I volunteer my community organizational expertise in order to advocate more effectively for positive change.
Living in one of the unhealthiest places in the country for PM2.5 is a burden measured in lives lost and health and well-being diminished.
The Allegheny County Board of Health has the responsibility to protect all of its residents, and the source of funding to do so should not be diverting Clean Air Funds to meet what is the County’s obligation.
The Clean Air Fund is the repository of fines paid by our region’s worst polluters and it must be utilized to meet the needs of residents who live in environmental justice communities, which inevitably are located closest to the worst sources of pollution; communities with the lowest levels of per capita income.
These residents should not be further penalized because of inadequate enforcement.
Let these funds be utilized to help them purchase home air filters which they cannot afford to purchase, or meet other urgent personal needs due to having to breathe toxic emissions.
Our Board of Health is vastly underfunded, underscoring the truism that you get what you pay for.
Our elected county officials need to lead by advocating for adequate budgets to protect all of us, and not use the Clean Air Fund as a way to shirk that responsibility.
Howard M. Rieger, Ph.D.
Convener SWPATHS
6315 Forbes Ave
Pittsburgh, PA 15217
hmrieger@gmail.com