For example, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, residents of the City of Clairton are questioning whether a recent settlement with the largest coke producer in North America will protect public health.
"We've seen the consent agreements between U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works and the health department over the past several years that I have lived here, and, frankly, the air quality has not changed," said Clairton resident, Pat Jones. "We are skeptical."
With the lack of community trust that regulatory agencies are creating a path toward a healthier, livable environment, residents are taking matters into their own hands. We outline some ways community members in and around the City of Clairton are combatting poor air quality on their own terms.
Smoke School
Recently, Eastern Technical Associates (ETA) offered a free Visible Emissions Certification program, or "smoke school." This type of program is required by the EPA in order for an individual to be recognized as a qualified observer of stationary emissions sources, like U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works.
The class took place at Settlers Cabin Park on an early Tuesday morning. ETA brought their smoke machine and demonstrated the various different opacity levels from both black and white smoke emissions. Each participant would fill in estimated opacity levels on a zero to 100 scale for each round of testing. The test is harder than it looks - most participants went through three rounds before passing the test.
Chris Harper, an electrical engineer from Edgewood, has been a certified smoke reader for a couple years. He uses his certification to be a citizen watchdog over Clairton Coke Works, because he says the pollution plumes affect his community.
Harper also publishes an online air quality dashboard for others to see what is going on throughout the region.
Speck Monitors
Carnegie Mellon University's CREATE Lab is using technology to foster citizen engagement in air quality. Through spinoff, Airviz, knowing what is in the air you breathe is as easy as borrowing a book from your local library.
This month, Airviz donated 10 Specks - monitors that detect particulates in homes and workplaces - to the Clairton Public Library.
Odessa Ellis, children's services coordinator for the library, said she is very excited about having the Specks and plans to incorporate them into children's programs and hopes parents will check them out for home use.
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| Clairton Public Library's Odessa Ellis, Freda Montgomery, and Audrey Minarcik show off the library's new Speck sensors. |
Student Activism
As community groups and residents in the Mon Valley area are working toward monitoring the air quality, younger residents are contributing to spreading awareness of the issue. With a large percentage of Clairton students having asthma, air quality is a major concern for them.
High school students of Stay Positive Clairton, a project of Youth Opportunites Development, are learning to spread the word of about air quality in their neighborhood. Partnering with environmental groups like PennFuture and PennEnvironment, they are preparing to gather signatures for a petition to the Allegheny County Health Department during community events like basketball games as well as door-to-door canvassing.
Stay Positive Clairton's program director, Brandon Ziat, says that the petition is a great leadership opportunity for kids to build leadership skills and shape their community.
"Every day when I drive to work with the kids, I see the plant. Air pollution is a constant worry and it's great to know that something is being done about it and kids can get involved," added Ziat.
Do you suspect poor air quality in your area?
We want to hear your story.
Annie Regan is the western Pennsylvania outreach coordinator for PennFuture and is based in Pittsburgh. She tweets @MsAnnieRegan.
