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GASP Air Pollution Announcement
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 25 Apr '19

25 Apr '19

YOU'RE INVITED: Clean Air Council, Citizens for Clean Air Hosting Listening Session in Clairton About Air Quality Mark your calendars, because you’re invited to attend an event being hosted by Clean Air Council, with support from GASP and other organizations, as well as the newly formed group, Citizens for Clean Air, that will give members of the Clairton community an opportunity to speak out about the recent air quality issues related to the U.S. Steel fire and subsequent facility repair. The event, Clean Air Now for the Mon Valley, is slated for 6 p.m. May 9 at the Church of Jesus Christ in Clairton. Elected officials have also been invited to the event to listen to residents’ concerns. “Help us amplify the voices of the residents of Clairton and the Mon Valley,” organizers wrote on the e-invite. Want to go? You can register online here. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Source: Group Against Smog & Pollution (GASP) in Pittsburgh & Allegheny County. These issues are also relevant to the coke oven battery in Follansbee, WV. See also: https://gasp-pgh.org

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Pittsburgh region's air quality gets an 'F' grade | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 24 Apr '19

24 Apr '19

Pittsburgh region's air quality gets an 'F' grade From Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, April 24, 2019 The Pittsburgh region’s bad air history isn’t history after all, according to the American Lung Association’s 20th annual “State of the Air” report released Wednesday. The report found worsening daily and annual soot pollution in the tri-state metro region for the three-year period, 2015 through 2017, along with higher levels of ground-level ozone, the principal component of unhealthy smog. Allegheny County was the only county outside of California to receive failing grades in both soot categories and ozone. But the region wasn’t alone in registering poorer air quality. While there were more regions where air quality has improved there were also many regions that experienced more days of high ozone levels and short-term airborne particle spikes in the three years covered by this year’s report than in the previous report for 2014-2016. Don Hopey Emotional speakers beg for stronger controls on methane emissions “Residents of Pittsburgh and the metro area should be aware that we’re breathing unhealthy air, driven by local emissions, upwind sources, and extreme heat as a result of climate change, placing our health and lives at risk,” said Kevin Stewart, the ALA’s director of environmental health for advocacy and public policy. The report ranked the 12-county Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton metro area 28th worst in the U.S. for ozone. It was ranked 37th worst last year. And even as many other regions showed progress in reducing soot pollution, the tri-state region ran counter to that trend, ranking 7th worst nationally in annual airborne particle emissions and 10th worst in daily spikes exceeding healthy limits. As it has for 19 of the 20 years the Lung Association has published a report, Los Angeles remains the metro area with the worst ozone pollution. The Fresno, Calif., metro area has had the worst annual particle pollution, and Bakersfield, Calif., is ranked 1st for short-term soot pollution. Mr. Stewart said many eastern metro regions registered reduced annual levels of fine airborne particles during the three years covered by the report as power plants switched fuel from dirty coal to cleaner burning natural gas and vehicle emissions also improved. But the Pittsburgh metro region has more industry than most, and its daily and annual soot pollution levels were significantly higher in this year’s report than they were in the previous report. “The [particulate matter] levels are driven by local industry,” Mr. Stewart said. “Other metro areas don’t have that level of industry and not all metro areas have as many monitoring stations near obvious industrial sites. And its river valleys also trap pollution along the ground.” Don Hopey U.S. Steel: The desulfurization system damaged in December fired up and running again While the report states that “most of the nation has much cleaner air quality than even a decade ago,” and the national trend is toward reduced soot pollution, ozone levels are up in more regions that not, a product of warmer temperatures from 2015 through 2017. According to the report, those years were the hottest recorded in global history. Mr. Stewart said the warming climate not only makes ozone more likely to form, but also makes it harder to keep in check once it does. According to the Lung Association, both ozone and particle pollution are dangerous to public health and can increase the risk of premature death and serious health effects such as lung cancer, asthma, cardiovascular damage, and developmental and reproductive harm. The Lung Association’s air pollution “report card” uses the latest available quality-assured local, state and federal pollution data to calculate its rankings. Mr. Stewart said the Clean Air Act has been successful in reducing emissions, but air quality is “not close to where we want to be.” He said the ALA supports more stringent emissions standards. “Current controls,” he said, “are inadequate to protect public health.” Dr. Karen Hacker, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, which regulates and enforces air emissions in the county, said the ALA’s report is “a reminder that air quality continues to be one of the most pressing public health challenges in our area.” She said the department has ramped up enforcement efforts in the past two years, and will continue to aggressively hold polluters accountable. She said the department is working to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and particulate matter measured by the Liberty air monitor, downwind from U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in the Mon Valley. “The Liberty monitor is the only monitor in the county that is out of attainment with EPA standards for sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, and addressing this issue is a top priority,” Dr. Hacker said. She said the department will soon submit the county’s portion of a federally required state emissions control plan, which will address the county’s failure to meet soot limitations. The department is also working on formulating new coke oven rules to deal with fugitive emissions at the Clairton coke plant. “We all want and deserve clean air, and we will continue to use all of our tools to improve the air that we all breathe,” Dr. Hacker said. “But we cannot do this alone, and we call upon industry leaders, such as U.S. Steel, to address all non-compliance issues and improve our air quality.” Don Hopey: dhopey(a)post-gazette.com, 412-263-1983, or on Twitter @donhopey Sent from my iPhone

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Windborne Microplastics Are Everywhere - EcoWatch
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 21 Apr '19

21 Apr '19

Windborne Microplastics Are Everywhere - EcoWatch https://www.ecowatch.com/microplastics-wind-health-2634780390.html?share_id… From an Article by Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch.com, April 19, 2019 Plastic gets around. Previously, researchers had discovered fragments of microplastics in the world's most remote locations, like the depths of the Marianas Trench and Antarctica. New research has shown that microplastics rain down on the pristine peaks of the Pyrenees mountains. The researchers found a daily rate of plastic pollution falling from the sky in the Pyrenees was comparable to the amount raining down on Paris and Dongguan, a large industrial city in China, NPR reported. "It was incredible how much microplastic was being deposited," said Deonie Allen, a researcher at EcoLab in the School of Agricultural and Life Sciences in Toulouse, France, as reported by National Geographic. There were no obvious sources for the microplastics within 60 miles, said Allen, the lead author of the study published Monday in Nature Geoscience. The study is the first of its kind to show the how far microplastics can travel on the wind. Scientists had previously thought that atmospheric microplastic pollutants would rise up and settle again near the cities and industrial hubs where they originated. The researchers looked at computer models of wind patterns to pinpoint the source of the microplastics, but none was found within a 60-mile radius of the region — which is sparsely populated and without commercial, industrial or large agricultural centers. While scientists know how dust gets blown and travels from the Sahara to Europe, they know very little about how microplastics move. "We don't have this sort of material in nature," said Deonie Allen, as NPR reported. She noted that microplastics vary in shapes and density, which might alter how long they remain wind-borne. The researchers also suspect that rain or snow carries some particles down to the ground, but they don't need precipitation to fall to Earth, according to NPR. Microplastics, which measure less than one-fifth of one-inch, have been shown to affect the health and reproductive systems of marine life. In fact, they were present in every marine mammal that researchers looked at in a recent British study. Microplastics also contaminated the drinking water, according to The Guardian. The new study suggests that humans will not only consume microplastics, but also inhale them. "We ... don't know what they do to humans," said Allen to NPR. "They're a brand new [type of] pollution, but there's so much of it and it's increasing so fast that it's something we really need to start learning about." Yet, there are some things we do know. Microplastics smaller than 25 microns can enter the human body through the nose or mouth and those less than five microns can end up in lung tissue. And, we know that microplastics tend to be sticky and accumulate heavy metals like mercury and persistent organic pollutants, including materials with known health impacts, according to National Geographic. To make matters worse, the researchers say that atmospheric plastic pollution is nearly impossible to clean up, so the only solution is to produce less plastic, according to Science.

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My goodness. This is Climate Change news to me.
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 18 Apr '19

18 Apr '19

READER SUPPORTED NEWS — with not enough support. FOCUS: A Lawyer Set Himself on Fire to Protest Climate Change. Did Anyone Care? https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/56046-focus-a-lawyer-set-hi…

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Comments prepared for Mon. Co. Commission, for March 13, 2019. Questions/comments?
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 13 Mar '19

13 Mar '19

Comments on LongviewPower, Past, Present, and Future; MVCAC, March 12, 2019 The Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition was an outgrowth of theissues raised by Longview Power and its impacts on the regional environmentincluding the public health, air quality, roads, etc. We participated in the Public Hearing on the PILOT Agreementheld in ca. 2003 here in the Court House. We asked representatives of Longview if they would put into writingtheir promise to use WV coal, their promise to refrain from consuming waterfrom the Mon River for cooling water, and their promise to be a “Zero Discharge”facility. We learned early on that all three of these promises were broken. Longview elected to use coal from Pennsylvania, althoughthey did use a conveyor belt to avoid extreme truck traffic on the local roadsuntil recently. Trucking of coal there is a severe problem. Longview decided to use Mon River water in their cooling andother operations, and installed Reverse Osmosis units to purify the riverwater. Longview, from the beginning has not been a “Zero Discharge”facility. Their stacks emit largevolumes of flue gases containing thousands of tons of carbon dioxide and manyother chemicals in lesser quantities. The fly ash and bottom ash are waste discharges from the plant and gointo the local environment. Their liquidwaste pipeline flows north into Pennsylvania and down into abandoned mineoperations, contaminating the water underground. At the present time, the 300 (plus) heavy diesel trucks perday transport Pennsylvania coal from a Mon River dock up and over a steepunstable county road, thru the Ft. Martin community, up to the Longview Powerplant. This road is the subject of severedamages due to the high level of truck traffic and the dangerous condition forauto drivers. Alternatively, the shorter and relatively flat road from theCumberland Mine would bring this coal directly south from Pennsylvania to thepower plant. The vapor plume from the Longview power plant continues toobscure the western sky for the University High School and all those residentsalong Bakers Ridge Road, Pt. Marion Road, Stewartstown and the northern CheatLake area. Longview is now proposing to construct a natural-gas-fired powerplant in Ft. Martin, and add a solar panel farm nearby. The existing PILOT Agreement now in force representsa public agreement arrived at thru a process of limited public participation. Any modification to this agreement oradoption of any new agreements needs to be developed with the maximum ofopenness and public participation. A potential tax statement exclusive of aPILOT is a prerequisite. Greenhouse gases, global warming and climate change can nolonger be ignored. The burning of methane, ethane and/or other hydrocarbonsmust be offset with carbon taxes or other schemes. And, every effort should bemade to locate the solar panels in West Virginia, not Pennsylvania. Duane G. Nichols, Coordinator, Mon Valley Clean AirCoalition, Morgantown, WV 26508

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Longview Gas Plant and Solar Panels
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 12 Mar '19

12 Mar '19

> On Sunday, February 24, 2019, 9:17:51 AM EST, James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> wrote: > > > The Feb. 24th Dominion Post has an article highlighting Longview's $900 million plan to add 1200 MW of gas-fired generation by 2020. They also propose a 50-MW array across the state line in PA, and a 6-mile, 20-inch gas pipeline to connect with the TransCanada Colombia 1804 Interstate line in PA. > The story indicates that Longview may need to develop a new PILOT agreement with the Mon County Commission. > > An earlier news story is available at: > > https://www.wvnews.com/morgantownnews/news/longview-power-aims-to-have-gas-… > > > > Jim Kotcon > >

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Eastman Chemicals in Jefferson Hills south of Pittsburgh
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 14 Feb '19

14 Feb '19

GASP Submits Petition Asking Allegheny County Health Department to Deny Eastman Chemical Permits The Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) on Thursday submitted a petition adorned with 250 signatures asking the Allegheny County Health Department to deny installation permits sought by Knoxville, TN-based plastics company Eastman Chemical Resins Inc., which operates a facility in Jefferson Hills. The reason why? Eastman’s plant is a major source of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). VOCs are a type of pollution regulated by the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act requires Eastman and other major sources of air pollution to have what’s known as a Title V Operating Permit. “Eastman and ACHD need to prioritize Eastman’s compliance with the requirements of a seven-year-old federal consent order over authorizing increased production limits, which carry with them increased pollution,” said GASP’s Senior Attorney, John Baillie. In addition to submitting the petition, GASP also submitted formal comments on Eastman’s installation permit applications. For more information, or to read the full petition, visit the GASP website. https://gasp-pgh.org/

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Environmental Groups Appeal PTT Global Chemical Permit for Proposed Cracker in Belmont County | News, Sports, Jobs - The Intelligencer
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 21 Jan '19

21 Jan '19

http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2019/01/environmental-gr… Environmental Groups Appeal PTT Global Chemical Permit for Proposed Cracker in Belmont County From an Article by Jennifer Compston-Strough, Wheeling Intelligencer, January 21, 2019 COLUMBUS, Ohio — A national environmental group and three partner organizations are challenging the state’s decision to issue an air permit-to-install for a proposed petrochemical complex in Belmont County. The Sierra Club and its partners filed an appeal Friday with the Environmental Review Appeals Commission seeking to have the permit issued on Dec. 21 vacated. If it is not overturned, the permit will allow Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical and its partner, Daelim Industrial Co. LLC of South Korea, to build an ethane cracker plant that is projected to process 1.5 million tons of ethane from the local natural gas stream annually. Cracker plants use ethane to create ethylene, a component of plastics and chemicals such as antifreeze, solvents and cleaners, as well as many consumer products including textiles, adhesives and paints. Ethane is an abundant part of the natural gas stream found in the Utica and Marcellus shales that underlie much of Eastern Ohio and parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Proponents of the facility say it would bring thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent positions to the Ohio Valley and would attract additional related industry to the region. PTT and Daelim have invested millions of dollars in design work and planning, and to buy property at the proposed site at Dilles Bottom. However, they still have not committed to building the project, which could cost as much as $10 billion. Opponents — such as the Sierra Club and its appeal partners the Center for Biological Diversity, Earthworks and the Freshwater Accountability Project along with some local residents – believe the plant would cause air and water pollution that would endanger the surrounding environment, public health and the overall climate. They say it would emit harmful amounts of particulate matter and dangerous chemicals, including benzene, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. In the appeal, the groups cite several “assignments of error” as reasons for the commission to vacate the permit. They state that Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler based issuance of the permit on a “fatally flawed” air dispersion model that does not reliably establish whether the facility will violate state and national air quality standards for multiple pollutants. The appeal also states the Ohio EPA failed to utilize certain data properly, ignored short-term peak emissions, failed to properly account for VOCs that would be emitted by flares and thermal oxidizers at the facility, and approved monitoring requirements that are insufficient to assure reasonable compliance with permit limits. They believe the permit as issued requires inadequate frequency of stack testing and other monitoring procedures. They also say the permit’s limitations and standards lack the specificity necessary to be enforceable. The Sierra Club and its partners said the Ohio EPA ignored testimony from dozens of concerned citizens at a public hearing on the permit that was conducted at Shadyside High School on Nov. 27. Representatives of the Sierra Club and other similar organizations were on hand for that hearing, along with about 100 other area residents and representatives of local government and organized labor. Some of those present did testify about environmental concerns linked to the project, but others supported the plan to build the plant. “Communities shouldn’t be forced to breathe toxic, polluted air just to prop up fracked gas and petrochemical companies,” Sierra Club Beyond Dirty Fuels Campaign Director Kelly Martin said in a news release Friday. “This plant, and the broader effort to build out a petrochemical hub in this area, would be a danger to clean air, public health, and our climate. The health and safety of Ohioans and those who live downstream on the Ohio River are worth more than fossil fuel industry profits.” Lea Harper, managing director of Freshwater Accountability Project, agreed. “The Ohio EPA’s rubber stamp of the cracker plant air permit shows a total disregard for expert input and concerns of the local residents,” she said. “We are dismayed that there is not more regulatory oversight of such a toxic polluter in the Ohio River Valley.” Lauren Packard, staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, echoed their thoughts. “These plants will contaminate Ohio River Valley communities just to create more plastic pollution,” she said. “We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground instead finding wasteful new uses for them. Industry’s plans to increase plastic production will worsen climate change and the ocean plastic crisis at the expense of Ohioans.” According to Ohio EPA, the plant would use six ethane cracking furnaces and manufacture ethylene, high-density polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene, which are used in plastics and chemical manufacturing. As a result of this process, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, volatile organic compounds, particulate matter and greenhouse gases are expected to be emitted from the plant, but Ohio EPA said it determined those pollutants would not exceed acceptable levels as defined by state and federal laws. Ohio EPA also said its agents considered all comments received before making a final decision on the permit. The final permit and the Response to Comments document are available online at epa.ohio.gov/dapc/newpermits/issued. Dan Williamson, spokesman for PTTGC America, declined to comment on the appeal, saying it is a legal matter. He previously lauded the issuance of the permit, saying it was an important step in the companies’ decision-making process. The Environmental Review Appeals Commission has statewide jurisdiction to hear and resolve appeals of decisions by the directors of the Ohio EPA, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the State Fire Marshal, the State Emergency Response Commission and county and local boards of health. Decisions of the commission can be appealed to the Franklin County Court of Appeals or to the court of appeals for the district in which a violation is alleged to have occurred. The commission meets every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday for consideration and review of documents filed. Preliminary prehearing conferences are generally scheduled within 30-40 days after an appeal is filed.

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SO2 from Clariton Coke Works
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 17 Jan '19

17 Jan '19

Updates on Christmas Eve Fire at Clairton Coke Works On Christmas Eve, a fire burned for five hours at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, doing significant damage to equipment that takes sulfur out of the coke oven gas. The cause of the fire has been preliminarily identified as "mechanical failure." The timeline for repair completion is unknown. Since the fire, sulfur dioxide levels in the area have repeatedly violated legal limits. Exposure to sulfur dioxide can cause a number of respiratory problems, such as sore throat, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and more. It can also exacerbate existing respiratory illnesses like COPD or asthma. Those who are especially vulnerable include people who already have these ailments, children, and the elderly. Outdoor activity can increase a person's exposure and as a result, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) issued a warning for residents of over 20 communities in the Mon Valley to limit their outdoor activities. The risk of more sulfur dioxide spikes remains and the health advisory is still in effect. The increases in sulfur dioxide in the air near the plant may have already caused health effects. Dr. Deborah Gentile is an asthma researcher. She has previously discovered that the childhood asthma rate in Allegheny County is almost 3x the state average. During a January 14 check on Clairton students with asthma, she found that over a third of the students participating in an asthma management clinic had significant drops in lung function. Read about her findings in Environmental Health News and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. After facing sharp criticism concerning their efforts to communicate the dangers and risks to the public, ACHD has taken several steps to improve communication. Updates are now given at 3 p.m. on sulfur dioxide levels recorded at monitors near the plant. You can get updates from ACHD's Facebook page, a new county web page dedicated to this issue, or by signing up to receive information through the "Allegheny Alerts" system, where you can choose to receive alerts via a phone call, text, or email. Please remember to call or email an odor complaint to ACHD. The complaint line is (412) 687-ACHD and the web page to email a complaint is found here. You can also use the Smell Pgh app to record complaints on your phone, and to see other people's complaints across the region. GASP will continue to follow this issue and report to you. Thank you for staying informed and fighting for better air quality in our region!

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Pa. environmental board slams Sunoco air-quality permit | News | delcotimes.com
by Duane Nichols via MVCAC 10 Jan '19

10 Jan '19

https://www.delcotimes.com/news/pa-environmental-board-slams-sunoco-air-qua… Pa. environmental board slams Sunoco air-quality permit By Bill Rettew, Delaware County Times, January 10, 2019 PHILADELPHIA >> A state Environmental Hearing Board ruled the state Department of Environmental Protection unlawfully issued an air-quality permit for Sunoco at its Marcus Hook facility. The Marcus Hook facility is the end point for Sunoco and Energy Transfer Partners Mariner East 2 pipeline project. The pipeline will deliver hundreds of thousands of barrels of liquid gases such as ethane, butane and propane to the facility every day. Once there, they will be stored and eventually shipped for the most part to overseas destinations. On Wednesday, the environmental board ruled that DEP unlawfully issued an air-quality permit for natural gas liquids processing equipment at the Sunoco Partners Marketing & Terminals L.P. facility in Marcus Hook. The processing equipment is designed to handle liquids from the Mariner East pipelines, which run across Pennsylvania. The decision came in response to Clean Air Council’s appeal in April 2016, leading to a trial in May 2018. Specifically, the board said that DEP was mistaken when it considered various portions of the plan as separate entities. Instead the board noted DEP should have reviewed the project as a whole. Alex Bomstein, senior litigation attorney for Clean Air Council, hailed the ruling. “The board’s ruling really shows that no one – not even Sunoco – is above the law,” Bomstein said. “The industry’s practice of dividing up big projects into smaller pieces that sneak under pollution thresholds, what we call segmentation, has gone on for too long. This decision is a major step towards restoring the protections that help ensure we have clean air to breathe.” Sunoco/ETP spokeswoman Lisa Dillinger took a different view of the ruling Thursday. “Today’s ruling has no impact on the construction and operation activities authorized under Plan Approval E while the PA DEP conducts an analysis of the permit, which we feel was permitted correctly,” Dillinger said. “We will work with the PA DEP to provide them with the appropriate information for their review, and we are pleased that the overriding outcome was the Environmental Hearing Board’s denial of the Clean Air Council’s request to revoke the permit.” The board held that the project in question was really part of an overarching project to transform the former Marcus Hook refinery into a natural gas liquids processing facility. The larger project was unlawfully broken up into smaller projects for the sake of permitting. Where separate construction activities are really all part of the same project, the emissions from all of those projects must be aggregated to determine if more stringent requirements are triggered. Ultimately, the board sent the air permit back to DEP so that DEP can re-evaluate how the project should be permitted. The board’s decision enhances existing law by providing detailed guidance on when multiple related projects should be considered one project in a review of an air permit application. “The Environmental Hearing Board’s decision is not only a victory for Clean Air Council, it is a victory for public health and the neighboring communities,” said Joseph Otis Minott, executive director and chief counsel for Clean Air Council. “Too often, big industry players have avoided pollution controls by creating loopholes that jeopardize air quality protections. Sunoco/ETP has been one of the worst offenders in this regard, time and again circumventing the rules and putting the public at risk. The board decision has finally closed this loophole.” Mariner East 2 is a multi-billion dollar project that will carry liquid gases from the state’s Marcellus Shale regions across the full 350-mile width of Pennsylvania, ending in Marcus Hook. Mariner East 2 is now online, utilizing a mix of different size pipes because of delays and shutdowns on the full, 20-inch pipeline. The board’s opinion is available in full at: http://ehb.courtapps.com/efile/documentViewer.php?documentID=44482.

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