Please sign the petition if you have not already done so.
On September 2024, the Allegheny County Board of Health (ACHD) recommended to Allegheny County Council that operating permit fees charged to polluting companies be increased, to provide funding for the Board of Health to better enforce air-quality regulations.
Backlogs on processing such permits have been cited since 2018 by the Environmental Protection Agency as a major weakness at the Board of Health, which is charged with protecting us from the toxic air we breathe.
The Health & Human Services Subcommittee of Allegheny County Council endorsed the recommendation. But when the County Council convened on December 17 to consider action, there were not enough votes for passage. At the request of subcommittee chair Paul Klein, the action was tabled.
Why would a council person not support the recommendations of its Board of Health and its own subcommittee?
As one of the 1% worst counties in America for cancers, heart and lung diseases related to air pollution, what could be the motivation to vote against an increase that will cost taxpayers nothing, while enabling their Health Department to do its job more effectively?
Could it be sympathy for our worst polluter, U.S. Steel, and the fact that they would see the permit fee for each of their three Mon Valley facilities increased from $7,000 to $53,000 per year?
How would that be burdensome for a company with $15.6 billion of revenue last year?
U. S. Steel is opposing the fee increase, because the company doesn’t want to see ACHD empowered to aggressively protect us from emissions released by the company’s extremely old and poorly maintained Mon Valley Works.
Over the years, U.S. Steel has committed to upgrading their Mon Valley Works, the last time in 2019, when they pledged $1.2 billion to do so. Two years later they reneged on that commitment, instead investing $6+ billion in new non-union facilities in Arkansas.
Why does our region act as if it is beholden to this company, which once employed 340,000 worldwide, and today has shrunk to a shell of itself with 22,000 workers, only 3,000 of whom work in the Mon Valley?
And why are we ignoring the fact that air pollution is making it difficult to recruit the next generation of talent, who are aware of the health risks of living here?
With no vision for the future, Pittsburgh, which had a population of 677,000 in 1950, is barely 300,000 today. Allegheny County had a population of 2,213,000 in that same year, and is 1,250,000 today.
We have great assets in the form of world class universities, a developing high tech sector, massive healthcare institutions and a skilled workforce. They together hold the key to our future economic development, if our civic, corporate, governmental and academic officials would deploy them to chart a new path forward.
And while we are waiting for County Council to muster the votes to pass the fee increase that would better enable ACHD to perform its lifesaving tasks, we just received word that the wife of one of our most vocal Clairton activists passed away from coal-smoke related sarcoidosis, and a vocal couple from Glassport, after losing the most recent of several dogs to toxic substances on their lawn, are moving to Butler.
The future of our region depends upon each of us reaching out to our county and city councilpersons, Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, and civic and corporate leaders to demand that that they support the development of a vision for our future that promotes economic opportunity and demographic growth, not stagnation and decline.
As a first step, join with over 500 residents who have signed our SW PA Town Hall petition to Allegheny County Council, which can be accessed on our website (https://swpaths.org), urging passage of the fee increase.
Together we will make a difference!
Howard M Rieger, Ph.D.
Convener, SW PA Grassroots Air Quality Town Halls &
East End Neighbors: fight pollution