HOWARD M RIEGER, PHD
CONVENER SW PA GRASSROOTS RESIDENT-LED AIR QUALITY TOWN HALLS
For the last three years I have served as the volunteer convener of SW PA Grassroots Resident-Led Air Quality Town Halls. Our 12 Town Halls have attracted 750 participants and a contact list of over 1,200.
Our mission is to amplify the voices of residents of environmental justice communities such as Clairton, located adjacent to the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works, our region’s worst polluter, responsible for the overwhelming majority of the toxic air that we breathe.
We have heard from residents, many from Clairton, who have time after time described their diminished health and the premature deaths of family members and friends.
On December 7, ACHD announced tonight’s hearing, when residents were focused on the upcoming Holiday season, rather than a meeting of such great magnitude. A planned hearing taking place in the dead of winter, when residents are least likely to be able to attend, just adds insult to countless years of injury.
On December 19 we wrote to then Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, County Council and ACHD, requesting a postponement in order to allow the new administration to weigh in, and to maximize the permit’s control measures. Residents were not surprised when we didn’t even receive the courtesy of a response.
Too often ACHD has been outgunned by U.S. Steel, entering into one-sided consent agreements and in other ways allowing its oversight functions to be diminished.
Over its 122 year history, the Clairton Coke Works has wreaked havoc on our region. The toxic air pollution that it spews is the primary reason that Allegheny County is one of the 1% worst places to live in America for cancer, and one of the worst for lung and heart diseases.
U.S. Steel could do better. In fact, back in 2019, the company committed to spending $1.5 billion to upgrade its ancient, poorly maintained Mon Valley operations. But barely two years later it canceled its plan and instead invested that money plus another $4.5 billion in Arkansas, a right-to-work state, where they acquired and expanded Big River Steel, a non-union facility.
So much for loyalty to its union workforce that is here tonight, a workforce that breathes from close range the toxic air that the ACHD must improve by assuring that this operating permit maximizes the Health Department’s regulatory oversight.