Parts of Allegheny County achieve new air quality milestones

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that parts of Allegheny County have made significant improvements in air quality levels, however some local environmental groups say there is still a long way to go before the air is clean.

On Thursday, EPA announced the approval of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s request to make Liberty-Clairton a “designated attainment area” for the 1997 and 2006 fine particulate pollution National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This means the Liberty, Lincoln, Port Vue and Glassport boroughs along with the City of Clairton have each achieved new advancements in required air quality standards.

For a nonattainment area to reach attainment, the EPA has to determine whether or not an area has met the requirements for the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as listed in the Clean Air Act, according to EPA’s website.

“Fine particulate pollution, known as PM2.5, can originate directly from sources or form secondarily through atmospheric chemical reactions involving precursor pollutants. EPA’s decision reflects the successful implementation of strategies to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide …, nitrogen dioxide …, ammonia … and volatile organic compounds …, which contribute to PM2.5 formation,” the news release said.

Still, Patrick Campbell, executive director for Group Against Smog and Pollution, a nonprofit in Southwestern Pennsylvania working for a sustainable environment, said Allegheny County has room for improvement.

“Whenever we do hit these kinds of milestones it is important,” he said. “[But] there is still a lot of work to do to improve Allegheny County air.”

While reaching the 1997 and 2006 goals are an advancement, Campbell said it will take a long time before the county reaches even 2024’s clean air standards, because the EPA needs to look at each area individually to determine whether or not it passes.

The mayors for the City of Clairton, Liberty, Lincoln, Port Vue and Glassport boroughs could not be reached for comment.

Last week, EPA also granted approval for the county’s Maintenance Plan that covers not only the 1997 and 2006 standards but also the 2012 PM2.5 standards.

“This maintenance plan helps to assure that the county will continue to meet these standards and provides a framework to assure attainment decades into the future,” said Geoff Rabinowitz, the deputy director of the Bureau of Environmental Health for the Allegheny County Health Department, in a statement to TribLive.

Rabinowitz said that while the Allegheny County Health Department also submitted a request to have county-wide attainment for 2012 PM2.5 standard, “there is still more hard work to do.”

“Clean air is essential for life,” Campbell said.