As calls for police reform continue, local organizations and community members in Pittsburgh have been getting together since January, coalescing around a new vision for public safety. 

The Coalition to Reimagine Public Safety is set to release a report next week with recommendations on how to make residents safer by reducing police interactions, especially in Black communities.    

Headed by 1Hood Media and the Alliance for Police Accountability, the Community Vision report is expected to list more than 20 recommendations broken into four categories: community violence, homelessness, mental health and drug use. Coalition members felt that police intervention is not needed in these areas and that funds should be diverted from law enforcement to local organizations already working within and with the community.

Allegheny County boasts more than 100 police departments, and the report aims to be a new take on law enforcement at a time when George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has spurred both city and county conversations about new approaches to public safety. Funded by The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Staunton Farm Foundation*, the coalition brought resources and paid staff to an issue that has often been the province of volunteers and activists.

“We’re really talking about making some steep cuts to the policing budgets,” said Brandi Fisher, president and CEO of the Alliance for Police Accountability. “Take the money that we’re putting into the policing budget to respond to people who are experiencing these things and put that money into institutions and community organizations that already exist, that are helping these people, but are greatly under-resourced.” 

‘We’re the ones that you’re targeting’

The Community Vision report is, in part, a response to 16 police reform recommendations released by Mayor Bill Peduto’s community task force nearly seven months ago.

Among the criticisms surrounding those recommendations: They came from a 15-member task force, picked by Peduto, that largely left out advocates that had led last year’s protests or had recent experience with the police. Fisher was originally named as one of the members of the mayor’s task force but later declined to serve on it.   

Mayoral spokesman Timothy McNulty wrote in response to PublicSource’s questions that the task force included “ex-offenders, protestors, academics, and members of immigrant and refugee communities” who worked for months to examine policing, and “should be lauded, not attacked.”

Coalition members, though, wanted an open dialogue that was community-led and centering the people who are directly impacted.  

“The issue of policing and police reform is a Black issue,” said Jasiri X, founder and CEO of 1Hood Media. “Because we’re the ones you’re arresting. …We’re the ones that you’re targeting, we’re the ones that you’re profiling, we’re the ones you’re harassing. So, if we’re not leading that conversation, and we’re not given the power to actually make the changes necessary to affect our community, that’s the problem to me.” 

In preparing the report, the group held meetings open to anyone to attend and add input. Fisher said coalition organizers allowed attendees to go into the draft report, see what was being written and add comments based on their own experiences and knowledge. 

“This is a public safety movement,” Fisher said. “And we are doing it centering the people who are directly impacted by this incarceral system.”

Crimes, or public health issues?

The coalition’s main thrust is for police to be de-centered from the lives of Black residents and for community organizations to be able to take the lead and answer public health and mental health crises instead. 

“The overwhelming theme was that there are already people in these communities who are helping with these issues,” said Dolly Prabhu, a staff attorney and Equal Justice Works Fellow at the Abolitionist Law Center, which was part of the coalition. Individuals and organizations that have been acting as “peacekeepers” need to be supported, she said.

Alice Bell, coordinator for Prevention Point Pittsburgh’s Overdose Prevention Project, said individuals who use drugs are routinely deemed as criminals, which leads to negative interactions with police officers. 

“We’ve been providing services to people who are actively using drugs for 26 years. We probably see easily, an average of 125 or 150 people a week,” Bell said. “We have never had a situation where we needed to call the police for anything.”

The report’s authors were conscious of the words used throughout the document, using words like “drug use” as opposed to “drug addicted.” 

“These are not crimes. These are not criminal issues. These are public health issues,” Fisher said. “And we need to respond to them in such a way, we need to resource that in such a way where we’re trying to actually help people and not punish people for experiencing these things.”

The recommendations also call for the development of a system that would divert people during a crisis from the police. Instead of calling 911 and having the police arrive, the call would instead go to an organization or individual that is trained to respond.

Allegheny County already has a call center to handle mental health crises. resolve Crisis Services is a unit of UPMC hired by the county to send in mental health professionals instead of, or alongside, police. Slow response times have limited resolve’s involvement with police.  

The report’s recommendations call for cuts to the police budget. Funding that would have been spent on training police officers on issues like addressing homelessness would instead go toward organizations already doing that work. 

“There are so many organizations and folks that are doing the work on the ground, with little to no resources,” said Jasiri X. “What would happen if those organizations and groups were resourced to the level that we should be? How could that impact and change the reality for us in our community here in Pittsburgh?”

Preparing for change and pushback

While creating the report, the coalition has been in contact with the Allegheny Department of Human Services, according to Fisher. The department, which has been quietly exploring public safety responses to behavioral health problems, declined comment, other than saying it was not part of the coalition.

After the release of the report, the coalition plans to continue that relationship and is hoping to start working with city officials in Pittsburgh, according to Fisher and Jasiri X. 

McNulty wrote that the Peduto administration would review any “good faith efforts” to improve public safety and well-being. He said the city’s Bureau of Police has received information requests from the coalition but that it has not otherwise interacted with the administration.

McNulty added that the administration is working to reimagine — though not to reduce — policing at a time when local efforts to emphasize social services coincide with a nationwide increase in crime. “There is not a single Pittsburgh neighborhood asking for a smaller police presence,” he wrote.

The coalition disagrees, citing protests calling for the police to be defunded and for reduced police presence in communities of color. 

“We’ve been spending the past year to six months calling for the police to be defunded and these resources to be brought into our community,” said Jasiri X. 

Fisher said the coalition is hopeful that the report’s recommendations will be able to be implemented in some capacity, intends to keep pushing for change, and understands that there is going to be pushback by people in power.  

“Pushback doesn’t mean that what we are pushing for is wrong,” said Fisher. “It means the exact opposite.” 

*PublicSource receives funding from The Pittsburgh Foundation and the Staunton Farm Foundation. 

Danielle Cruz was a PublicSource editorial intern for the spring semester. She can be reached at danielle@publicsource.org.

PublicSource reporter Rich Lord contributed to this story.

The post What would a less-policed Pittsburgh look like? A community coalition offers its vision appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

As industries grapple with racial inequities highlighted by the pandemic and protests for racial justice, recent promises by philanthropic organizations suggest positive steps.

Of more than 200 foundations surveyed nationwide by the Center for Effective Philanthropy [CEP], 80% said they’re revising funding processes to better consider racial equity. Many have also committed funding to communities impacted most by the pandemic.

But CEP’s Foundations Respond to Crisis 2020 study gives a note of caution: Success in philanthropy will depend on follow-through in a field where priorities quickly shift.

At the local level, a nonprofit effectiveness study released by the Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise [PACE] examined funding disparities across Western Pennsylvania. While nonprofit organizations serving diverse communities did best overall in obtaining philanthropic support, the study found that the average grant for organizations serving majority-white communities was nearly twice as large as the average grant for organizations serving communities of color.

PACE also found that organizations serving white communities were far more likely to get capacity-building support from foundations to make their operations more effective and sustainable.

Thomas Agnew, co-founder of BOOM Concepts in Pittsburgh, said he’s noticed positive changes in recent years.

More attention seems to be paid to equity — something that’s long overdue — but he also worries that the complicated nature of grant applications, coupled with a need for better outreach, means that funding isn’t getting to those who could benefit most.

“I think people are trying,” said Agnew, whose organization focuses on artistic development and entrepreneurship. “But it still has to get better.”

Meanwhile, several Pittsburgh-based foundations said they have examined their practices, including outreach and streamlining of applications, to increase support for historically disadvantaged communities.

Carmen Anderson, vice president of equity and research at The Heinz Endowments*, said it’s crucial for foundations to listen to the communities they serve and take steps to address unmet needs. 

“We know that many of the issues we wrestle with are not new,” Anderson said. “They have a historical context.”

A need for outreach

While the pandemic and protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis accelerated talks about racial inequity, it’s not a new conversation in philanthropy.

In 2018, for instance, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council found that few funders had specific art-focused grant programs for small budget organizations, emerging organizations and organizations of color, according to its Racial Equity and Arts Funding report. 

Mitch Swain, CEO of the council, said he’s seen more funders since then making a conscious effort to include racial equity and racial justice questions in their applications. He’s also seen an increase in grants and funding opportunities for organizations in communities of color.

But there was still a disconnect.

“Funders weren’t making the extra efforts to increase awareness of the programs that they have available,” Swain said. “If you really want to build outreach to the Black arts community, you have to get to know them and you have to work with people that are known within that Black community.”

Justin Laing, the principal consultant of Hillombo Consulting and a former senior program officer of arts and culture for The Heinz Endowments, said that over the years he’s seen more foundations trying to bridge equity gaps. That includes more foundations hiring Black, Hispanic and indigenous people from smaller organizations to work as program officers to help reach organizations they weren’t before.

But predominantly white organizations have the advantage of relationships with foundations that stretch back decades. 

“With the larger symphony, opera, ballet or major presenter organizations, like the cultural trust, they are going to maybe even have relationships with board members on the foundation,” Laing said. “The local Black-led organization is lucky if they even know a program officer.”

Increasing outreach to smaller organizations and organizations led and serving people of color is an ongoing goal of The Pittsburgh Foundation, said Michelle McMurray, the foundation’s vice president of program and community engagement. When the foundation started collecting data in 2015 to better understand their support for organizations led by people of color, they found that their numbers were neither reflective of where they thought they were nor where they wanted to be.

McMurray said the foundation started reaching out to smaller organizations to try to break down barriers and help fund organizations and communities they weren’t reaching.

“We really have to listen to and talk to the people who are most impacted by the decisions that we make,” McMurray said. “And so a core part of our strategy is the data, which is kind of a point of reflection, but it’s also really being intentional about being in relationships with organizations that are not benefiting from our organization’s resources.”

Tim Reeves, senior communications officer at the Richard King Mellon Foundation, said in an emailed response that Floyd’s murder last May prompted the foundation to evaluate its support for Black communities. Staff reached out to more than 50 Black leaders and organizations to ask a key question: “What else can we be doing at this important moment?”

Those conversations helped inform a recently released 10-year strategic plan as well as new funding for Black communities, Reeves said.

David Roger, the president of The Hillman Family Foundations, said the past year prompted the foundation to once again evaluate whether they were really listening to the needs of the surrounding communities and how they could better empower and support the organizations and leaders that were serving those communities. 

“We’ve worked in multiple ways to solicit feedback on what must be done to ensure that racial and social justice are the underlying fabric in our efforts aimed at economic recovery from COVID,” Roger said in a statement. “We know that open, honest dialogue on difficult issues on race, justice and the community’s response is always important, but more so right now.”

Applications as a barrier

The pandemic also highlighted the lack of access and resources that some communities had to technology.

According to Swain, this results in grant applications that might not be easy to access or navigate.

“I think there have been some assumptions that everyone has access to this stuff,” Swain said.

More than half of the foundations surveyed nationally by CEP said they had revised their grant application process to expand their reach. 

Agnew said requirements and language used in applications can be intimidating to organizations applying for the first time. “You have to not get bogged down by the writing” and explaining how your project fits the grant, he said. “For a lot of people, it’s really hard to do that.”

Anderson said The Heinz Endowments has been working to address technical barriers to grant applications with solutions that could include things like streamlining the process and providing technical support.

“We have to make sure that the application is straightforward, that the questions are simplistic in the way that we ask, that we give as many options as we can so that they can check boxes around certain things,” Anderson said. 

Roger said the Hillman Family Foundations has already been working to improve its application process, recognizing that what might seem straightforward to them might be a barrier for an organization that’s never approached a foundation before. Due to the speed required to approve emergency response funding during the pandemic, Roger said the foundations made progress in streamlining applications and grant restrictions.

The Pittsburgh Foundation took similar steps to reduce funding barriers.  

“In short, we were trying to figure out every way that we could be intentional and create a strategy to get support out and to get it out quickly,” President and CEO Lisa Schroeder said.

Capacity building and support beyond funding 

Reducing individual grant barriers is crucial, but Lucille Dabney, president and CEO of PACE, noted that organizations serving Black communities also need funding for capacity building. This refers to money that helps an organization grow, become more efficient and provide support or consulting to help build skills at smaller organizations.

“We have to take the focus off the nonprofit who may have a great fundraising staff,” Dabney said. “We have to look first in the communities in need, see what those communities need and who is there, who is positioned and who is accessible to those communities in order to be able to help improve those communities.” 

PACE’s 2020 study found that one in seven nonprofits that serve white communities in the region received capacity-building support, compared to the one in 20 nonprofits that serve communities of color that receive capacity-building support.

McMurray said The Pittsburgh Foundation is also working on making sure they are doing more than just funding organizations but also providing support and resources throughout the process through their “more than money” model. This includes asking organizations what they are lacking and trying to provide support, which can range from technical skills and infrastructure development to operating support.  

“It’s not just enough to just put money into the hands of organizations,” McMurray said. “Understand what their needs are, so that those resources are going out in a way that really supports them.” 

While philanthropic organizations are making intentional steps toward equity, PACE’s research shows that broad disparities still persist, with a result being that some communities lack significant improvements in their health and well-being. 

Pete York, a principal at BCT Partners and the lead researcher of the PACE report, said a key lesson is that foundations shouldn’t stop at making grants available — they need to recruit organizations that serve communities most in need.

“Be willing to work with those organizations, in spite of the fact that they may not be as strong as the ones that are on the surface,” York said. “The reason they’re not as strong is because they’ve been ignored.”

*PublicSource receives funding from The Pittsburgh Foundation, the Hillman Family Foundations, the R.K. Mellon Foundation and The Heinz Endowments.

Danielle Cruz is a PublicSource editorial intern. She can be reached at danielle@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Punya Bhasin.

The post Philanthropic organizations are making changes to address racial inequities. Success is more complicated than more funding. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Microplastics were found in major waterways across Pennsylvania, according to a study released on March 3 by PennEnvironment. Researchers found microplastics, which are fragments of plastic less than 5 millimeters in length, in all 300 water samples taken from 53 waterways in the state, including seven waterways in Allegheny County.

The study found microfibers from clothing and textiles in all of the waterways sampled. Microfilm from flexible plastics like bags or packaging was found in 94% of samples, and 87% of the waterways had microfragments present from harder plastic products. One body of water had microbeads from cosmetic products. 

In Allegheny County, five of the waterways — the Allegheny River, Nine Mile Run, Ohio River, Sewickley Creek and Turtle Creek — had fiber, fragment and film microplastics present. The other two waterways, Chartiers Creek and Monongahela River, had fiber and film microplastics present. 

Microplastics not only contain chemicals that are harmful to our health and to the health of wildlife but can also concentrate toxins that are already in the environment. 

A study by the World Wildlife Fund in 2019 found that on average humans unknowingly consume about 5 grams of microplastics every week, about the equivalent weight of a credit card, and about 21 grams of microplastics a month, enough to fill up half a rice bowl. 

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority [PWSA] currently draws drinking water from the Allegheny River and said they have not encountered evidence that suggests that microplastics are a concern to the current health of the water distribution system.

But environmental advocates say the findings are clear cause for concern.

“The results of this study should set off alarms for all Pennsylvanians who love our state’s rivers and streams,” said Faran Savitz, a conservation associate at PennEnvironment. “The staggering amount of microplastics we found likely means that no river, lake or stream is safe from this increasingly common contaminant.” 

To help you understand the risk of microplastics and what could be done in mitigation, PublicSource compiled key facts and background and checked in with advocates, researchers and the authority responsible for providing clean water to Pittsburgh to hear their perspectives.

Key facts 

Plastic is not biodegradable and instead breaks down into smaller pieces of plastic known as microplastics. Microplastics are defined as pieces of plastic that are less than five millimeters, about the size of a sesame seed. 

The PennEnvironment study looked specifically at four types of microplastics: fibers, film, fragments and microbeads. These microplastics can come from litter, waste in landfills or incinerators. Microplastics are also in a variety of products such as beads in certain cosmetic products or the small pieces of plastic that are used to make new plastic products. Microfibers are shed by clothing made from synthetic fibers when they are worn or washed. 

Dr. David Velinsky, the vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University and a technical consultant for the report, said that the plastic allows for contaminants, like polychlorinated biphenyls [PCBs] and dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethanes [DDTs], to stick to them and build up. Those plastics are then eaten by the surrounding wildlife and make its way up the food chain.  

“Microplastics can potentially accumulate pollutants that are present in the environment at low, low levels,” Velinsky said. “Accumulating or building up these contaminants and delivering them to wildlife that eat or ingest these microplastics that are out there.”

Currently, there are no state of federal mandates for drinking water to be tested specifically for microplastics. 

PWSA said, in an emailed statement, that they do not test the water for microplastics and have not encountered evidence that suggests that microplastics are a concern to the current health of the water distribution system.

“We do not specifically target microplastics in our treatment process,” said Rebecca Zito, senior manager of Public Affairs at Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. “However, we monitor turbidity levels, which we believe would help detect microplastics.” 

Monitoring turbidity levels, which refers to the amount of suspended material in the water, throughout the water treatment process can help reduce the amount of microplastics in water. The WWF said that water treatment processes can remove particles smaller than a micrometer, and advanced treatment can remove even smaller particles, aiding in the removal of microplastics.  

However, while treatment plants are able to filter out a high percentage of the microplastics from the water, Savitz from PennEnvironment said that research shows there is no way to filter all of them out yet. 

“There are some emerging technologies, but there’s nothing right now that is effective to get microplastics out of our environment, there really is no solution,” Savitz said. “The best thing is to cut plastics off at the source.” 

Key background

Previous research has found microplastics across the world, including in difficult to reach places like Mount Everest, the deepest part of the ocean and even the air we breathe. 

While research is still being done to understand how these are being consumed, WWF’s report concluded that microplastics were mostly being ingested through drinking water and animals like shellfish.  

Myrna Newman, the executive director of Allegheny Cleanways, an environmental organization that focuses on waterway and land cleanup operations, said that, on average, their cleanups remove about three to four tons of plastic and trash a year from waterways in Allegheny County. She estimates it would take decades to remove all the plastic in the environment. 

In 2020, Allegheny Cleanways reported that during one of their river cleanups at the Monongahela River they had collected over 4,800 pounds of plastic and trash. 

“The reality is that there’s a lot [of plastic] in the environment right now,” Newman said. “There’s still a lot of plastics in our environment that are misplaced, that are on our streets, in our creeks, on our riverbanks and in our trees for goodness sake. And we need to take care of that.”

Pennsylvania’s General Assembly and local governments are currently unable to enact or enforce any law, rule, regulation or tax on single-use plastics or packaging due to an omnibus bill passed in May 2020. The law remains in effect until either six months after Pennsylvania’s coronavirus-related state of emergency is lifted or July 1, 2021, whichever comes last. 

Voices 

 “I think that the big issue for us [Allegheny Cleanways] is that for years, we’ve been wanting some policies and some procedures and have been working with other organizations, working in collaborations and so forth to get some change. And what this study does is provide some really good, concrete evidence that what we were saying all along, is true. That there is a problem with and potentially, we don’t know yet since the research is still out on the impact on human health, but potentially a public health issue with plastics, in our environment.” — Myrna Newman, executive director of Allegheny Cleanways. 

“Contaminants like DDT, PCBs, and many others are considered hydrophobic, meaning they don’t like to be in the water. And because you have these plastics in the water, just like other organics, the contaminants, these PCBs and DDTs like the stick to them. And because these plastics are unfortunately petroleum based, once attached, these plastics can move up the food chain, be consumed by fish, other aquatic organisms, even some birds and would move up the food chain” — Dr. David Velinsky, vice president of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. 

“We are fortunate to draw our water from the Allegheny River. Since it flows from the north where there is less industry and population, it offers higher quality source water. Additionally, our ability to test for turbidity is continually improving with more precise instrumentation and analysis in our lab… We have yet to encounter evidence suggesting that microplastics are of concern to the current health of our water distribution system.”
— Rebecca Zito, Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority senior manager of public affairs.

“We need to fundamentally change the way that society produces and markets the products that consumers buy. We need to change the ways in which we deal with waste in order to tackle this form of pollution. And we need to make the creators of this environmental hazard start to take responsibility for the products that they put in the marketplace.”
— Faran Savitz, conservation associate at PennEnvironment. 

“We’ve known for a while now about the harm that single-use plastic causes to our environment, and this report is a startling reminder that plastic — specifically microplastics — threaten our health as well. Curbing our single-use plastic intake is one of the main ways to tackle this problem, and I fully support Philadelphia’s legal challenge against Pennsylvania’s municipal preemption of regulating them.” — Erika Strassburger, Pittsburgh City Council member.

What’s next?

Philadelphia, West Chester, Narberth and Lower Merion announced on March 3 that they are suing the state for the preemption on plastic ordinances stating that it was unconstitutionally put into the state budget. 

Some Pennsylvania Democrats are also pushing for the passage of the Zero Waste for PA legislation as a starting point to reducing plastic waste in the environment.  This legislative package includes measures to prohibit and limit the use of single-use plastics and requiring producers of plastic packaging to take part in a recycling program.

The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act was introduced in Congress last year. The proposed act includes strong bans on single use plastic bags, as well as polystyrene and includes producer responsibility requirements that would shift waste management responsibility to producers of plastic. 

Further reading

As Pittsburgh region increases plastics production, a leading scientist asks: How much of it will get in our water sources?

A plateful of plastic: Visualizing the amount of microplastic we eat

Many Pittsburgh-area plastics end up in landfills or the environment. Is recycling a solution or only a patch?

Good River: Stories of the Ohio 

Danielle Cruz is a PublicSource editorial intern. She can be reached at danielle@publicsource.org 

The post Microplastics found in waterways across PA, including 7 in Allegheny County. Why it’s dangerous and what you should know. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

After so many alerts in late fall about poor air quality due to a weather-related inversion trapping pollution over the Pittsburgh area, an announcement last week by Allegheny County about air quality improvements may have come as a surprise. So, one week after the county reported that all eight air quality monitors met federal air quality standards for the first time, PublicSource is providing a breakdown of the news for further understanding of what the announcement really means. 

The brief

The Allegheny County Department of Health [ACHD], on Jan. 26, announced that preliminary data from the monitors show that the county is in compliance with the air quality standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, ozone and particulate matter (PM 2.5, PM 10).

While the data show that various regulations and efforts being taken by county officials are starting to improve the air quality, environmental advocacy groups and Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen agree there is still a lot more work to do before neighborhoods are able to breathe clean air year round.

If the EPA confirms that the county monitors have met its air quality standards, it would change the county health department’s authority to enact new legislation to reduce emissions, according to Jim Kelly, the health department’s deputy director.  It would not alter the department’s enforcement abilities, and ACHD will continue to be the lead agency in charge of monitoring and protecting the county’s air quality.

Rachel Filippini, the executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution [GASP], said that once the county’s attainment has been confirmed, ACHD will no longer be required to develop and submit State Implementation Plans [SIP], which include pollution control measures submitted for EPA approval to keep pollution down. Filippini said some extra measures will stay in place for a while to ensure that the county continues to meet air quality standards.

Key facts

The health department is waiting on the EPA to review and confirm that the monitors have met the air quality standards, but county spokesperson Amie Downs said they do not know how long it will take for the county to receive attainment. The EPA will review the data and monitors to ensure that the monitors don’t need to be recalibrated and check for systemic bias in the data found. Matthew Mehalik, the executive director of Breathe Project, said that the revision procedure usually only results in minor changes unless they find a malfunctioning monitor that caused the data to become unusable.

Allegheny’s eight monitors are located in Liberty, Avalon, Lawrenceville, South Fayette, Harrison, Clairton, North Braddock and along the Parkway East. The county’s ninth monitor, located at the Lincoln monitoring site, was taken down in early January after the site no longer met the regulatory requirements for air quality monitors due to overgrown trees blocking air flow to the site. It was initially installed to collect data for a study that concluded years ago.

In recent years, the air quality around the Liberty monitor, which is near U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, has kept the county from being compliant with the federal standards for fine particulate matter (PM 2.5). 

The 2020 data collected from the Liberty monitor show that the annual average of fine particulate matter is 9.8 micrograms per cubic meter and a 24-hour average of 27.2 micrograms per cubic meter. The EPA’s annual standard for fine particulate matter is 12 micrograms per cubic meter and the 24-hour standard is 35 micrograms per cubic meter.  

An advisory panel of air pollution scientists — fired from the EPA under the Trump administration — released an independent report in 2019 warning that the current standards for fine particulate matter were still too high and do not protect public health. The standards, which have been made more stringent five times since the Clean Air Act was enacted, are periodically updated to include more recent studies about the impact of pollution on health. 

Several recent studies showed that communities that were in compliance with current EPA standards were still showing decreases in mortality and life expectancy and increased respiratory disease in children as a result of pollution. The panel’s report concluded that the annual standard for fine particulate matter should be lowered between 8 micrograms per cubic meter and 10 micrograms per cubic meter and that the 24-hour standard be lowered between 25 micrograms per cubic meter and 30 micrograms per cubic meter. 

While Allegheny County is compliant with the current particulate matter standards, environmental advocates point out that hydrogen sulfide, which makes the air smell like rotten eggs, remains a problem. In 2020, the county had a total of 26 exceedances of Pennsylvania’s 24-hour air quality standard for hydrogen sulfide at the Liberty monitor and two more at the North Braddock monitor. During a temperature inversion in early November, the air around the Liberty monitor exceeded the state’s standard for seven days straight, with an average concentration of 0.006 parts per million. The 24-hour standard is 0.005 parts per million. In an inversion, trapped emissions from the facility — as well as other sources of pollution, such as traffic and households — can cause air quality readings to exceed federal standards and pose health risks for residents.

Key background 

A study done by the University of Pittsburgh in 2018 ranked Allegheny County as one of the top U.S. counties with the highest risk of cancer from air pollution. 

The poor air quality in Allegheny County has also led to the county having some of the highest rates of asthma in the country. The county’s overall child asthma rate is 11%. 

The American Lung Association’s 2020 State of the Air report ranked the Pittsburgh Metro Area as the eighth most polluted and gave the area’s air an F for the levels of fine particle pollution. 

U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, which is the largest producer of coke in North America, is one of the biggest sources of pollution in Western Pennsylvania. A December 2018 fire knocked out pollution controls at the facility, followed by a second fire in June 2019, which knocked the controls out a second time. The company has been accused and sued multiple times for air pollution violations and has been fined multiple times by the county health department. 

Voices

“This achievement comes after years of hard work by the Health Department, federal and state agencies and local industry to clean up the air in Allegheny County,” Bogen said of the recent air quality data. “But we have more work to do, and the Health Department is committed to ensuring everyone in Allegheny County has clean air to breathe.”

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Filippini of GASP. “We still have too many days when foul odors and pollution from industrial sources makes the air unhealthy to breathe. And our most vulnerable — children, the elderly and those with heart and lung disease — suffer the most. There are still a number of large sources in the county which lack the necessary air quality permits and other sources which continue to flout air quality laws.”

In reference to the 2019 report by the former EPA advisory panel calling for new air quality standards:

“What is relevant from the County’s perspective is the need to pursue this more health protective standard now. We should not be one of the last places in the country to meet this new standard, which is very likely to come into existence,” said Mehalik of the Breathe Project. “We should try to become national leaders in protecting our residents. The county should start communicating about the need to meet more health protective standards instead of celebrating coming in near last place.”

What’s next

The county health department is currently going through the public comment process as they look to revise coke oven regulations. In a recent hearing, more than 70 local people testified including many Mon Valley residents who asked the health department for more stringent regulations. The proposed regulations look to revise inspection procedures for coke ovens and update current coke oven gas standards. The health department is currently reviewing the various comments submitted and will issue a comment response document as well as finalize the proposed regulations once they have finished their review. U.S. Steel has also challenged the proposed changes, saying that the health department has not been able to justify the revisions.

The health department is also working on a rule that would require companies to further limit emissions during weather-related pollution episodes like when an inversion traps in pollution from industrial companies. A subcommittee of Allegheny County’s Air Pollution Control Advisory Committee is set to vote on the rule sometime in early 2021 before it goes through the rest of the approval process needed to reach Allegheny County Council.  These regulations are likely to be brought up during the departments meeting on March 3 before being released for public comment. 

Further reading: 

A decade of cleaner air ended in controversy and questions about Allegheny County’s future 

Meet the 11 people who help set air quality rules for Allegheny County

Allegheny County is drafting a rule that would require U.S. Steel to take action during high-pollution days

Danielle Cruz is a PublicSource editorial intern. She can be reached at danielle@publicsource.org.

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