Responses to our questionnaire from Dave Fawcett
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.
Will you promote rooting out the conflicts of interest which weaken the ability of ACHD to do its job effectively?
DF: The conflicts of interests all across Allegheny County’s appointed positions are unacceptable. I emphasize that I am the only candidate in this primary that is not a career politician and therefore the only candidate in this primary that will not take the County Executive reins with an expectation of preserving pre existing alliances by handing out appointments to those connected with my supporters. This gives me the freedom to really vet appointees and make good-faith decisions about who gets to do the job. We can’t keep allowing unqualified individuals to grab and maintain this sort of power just because they are friendly to elected officials. I will make appointments based solely on qualifications and demonstrated commitment to good governance.
ACHD is being led by an interim-director without public health or medical training.
Will you ensure the new ACHD Director has public health credentials?
DF: Yes, absolutely. This is the bare minimum. ACHD should have a director with both public health and management credentials.
The ACHD is critically underfunded, having just approved diverting 25% of the Clean Air Fund composed of fines paid by polluters to fund its own operations. These funds should be used to directly help those in environmental justice communities who live closest to major sources of toxic emissions, and the ACE must provide adequate funding for ACHD to do its job.
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?
DF: Yes. We are seriously failing to properly enforce air pollution regulations in SWPA and marginalized communities are suffering as a result. The County’s weak enforcement arm is hitting us in two places: first, it allows pollution to be swept under the rug, and second, we are failing to collect fines and shorting the Clean Air Fund. As County Executive, I would establish a Department of Environmental Enforcement (DEE) to take the load of air and water quality regulation off of the health department. We need a county executive who is willing to crack down on polluters and enforce these laws. I will make it a priority to do so.
ACHD’s online county air pollution complaint system is far too complicated to navigate, given today’s open communication capabilities.
Will you support funding for a system that is easier to use, while ensuring open and timely communication regarding air quality issues?
DF: We absolutely have the ability and agency to drastically improve public communication systems in this day and age. We lose out on opportunities to improve air quality as well as opportunities to collect fines. And, the bottom line is that the County has a responsibility to enforce the law, and it is not doing so adequately. We need to find the funding to enforce the law and protect our environment.
ACHD has not responded to over 70,000 Smell Pgh app complaints since 2016, even though ACHD collaborated with Create Lab at CMU in the app’s creation.
Will you support improving ACHD operations by taking advantage of the tremendous 21st century technological assets that exist in our region?
DF: Yes! Allegheny County has the potential to be a beacon of sustainability and innovation. Our government can and should lead the way on that, and the Health Department is one of the most essential and impactful apparatuses under the County. We have to be willing to step into the 21st century and embrace innovation at the public level. We are lucky to have such brilliant tech and educational institutions here in Allegheny County, and we should collaborate with them to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of Health Department operations.
Addressing the catastrophic potential of an East Palestine-type disaster happening in Greater Pittsburgh requires immediate preventive action.
Are you open to the exploration of life or death scenarios aimed at increasing preparedness on the part of ACHD?
DF: Yes. Right now, I am the only candidate for County Executive that is discussing the very real possibility of a serious train derailment happening in Allegheny County. There is a Norfolk Southern line that runs right along the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh and Shaler. If a derailment were to happen there, it could have catastrophic damages on a major source of our County’s drinking water. When I was on County Council, I passed an ordinance allowing the County to acquire riverfront property (including that of Railroad tracks) for the purpose of creating a Countywide Riverfront Park. That ordinance was part of a set of ordinances authorizing the creation of such a park.
The train derailment has opened up a discussion of what we can and should expect our government to do to protect our air and water. The reality is that technology fails on occasion, despite regulations, and it will fail again. The capacity to move hazardous railroad tracks away from major water supplies should be, at the least, a part of the discussion surrounding the
derailment and its local impact. Though it is frightening and challenging to imagine this sort of disaster happening in our own background, the next County Executive has a real responsibility to equip the ACHD with the tools to prevent and prepare for an environmental disaster happening here.