On April 27, 2023 at 6pm (Zoom), at our 10th Grassroots Resident-Led Town Hall, we will address your responses to the following concerns:
The Board of Health and its committees currently have members who have conflicts of interest that make it difficult for them to hold polluters responsible. New members must be committed to addressing the health crisis that air pollution represents, placing us in one of the worst 1% of locations for cancer, lung and heart diseases caused by air pollution.
Responses to our questionnaire from Rep. Sara Innamorato.
Q: Will you promote rooting out the conflicts of interest which weaken the ability of ACHD to do its job effectively?
A: Yes. I will start by appointing members to the Board of Health who have environmental, public health, and medical credentials and ban representatives from polluting industry from sitting on the Board and advisory committees. ACHD should have one role: to protect the health and safety of our residents and to facilitate and provide high-quality medical care. It should NOT be in the business of protecting polluting industry.
Q: Will you ensure the new ACHD Director has public health credentials?
A: Absolutely. I will work with the Board of Health to find and hire someone who is clearly qualified for this job and has recognized environmental and public health credentials commensurate with the incredible, unique power of ACHD. It is a disservice to Allegheny County residents to require anything less.
Q: Will you ensure that the Clean Air Fund is used to help those in environmental justice communities and others who suffer from toxic emissions, and that the County meets its obligation to adequately fund our air pollution enforcement arm?
A: Yes. I am strongly opposed to the diversion of Clean Air Fund money to cover more of the costs of ACHD operations. That money is to remediate harm caused by polluters and that is what the money should be used for. Not to renovate buildings, not to pay staff, to repair harm in communities that need it most. I will also make the fund accessible and transparent and allow nonprofit organizations to apply directly to the fund in a public process. I will not allow closed-door decision making about how the fund is allocated. I will also actually get money out the door, something the current leadership of ACHD and the County Executive have failed to do.
Q: Will you support funding for a system that is easier to use, while ensuring open and timely communication regarding air quality issues?
A: We have incredible resources developed by our universities and funded by our philanthropic community that ACHD should be using and should be working in partnership with these organizations to further develop, fully deploy, and make actionable. I will provide the funding to ACHD necessary to do this, will work with ACDHS to help get ACHD onto their award-winning technology platforms, and will leverage every available bit of funding and knowledge from our university, nonprofit, and philanthropic communities to make it happen quickly. For example, ACHD failed to communicate risks to the public for two weeks during the Clairton Works fire in 2018. That will never happen under my watch. The public has a right to know what is happening around them and I will work tirelessly to put in place systems to provide rapid information across multiple modes.
Q: Will you support improving ACHD operations by taking advantage of the tremendous 21st century technological assets that exist in our region?
A: Absolutely. As stated above I will partner directly with the CREATELab, the Breathe Project, FracTracker Alliance, our universities, and our philanthropic community to make this happen.
Q: Are you open to the exploration of life or death scenarios aimed at increasing preparedness on the part of ACHD?
A: Yes. The derailment in East Palestine is just one example of the dozens of derailments that happen in our region on an ongoing basis. We do not currently have a plan in place to address these potential disasters and I will make it a top priority to develop a plan with risk management, emergency response, medical professionals, scientists and toxicologists, and other experts who will help us ensure that what happened across the border will never happen here. The primary responsibility of a County Executive is to keep our residents safe and I take that extremely seriously.