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GASP recently submitted comments to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding the new Beech Hollow natural gas-fired power plant in Robinson Township, Washington County. Although the proposed facility will incorporate a great deal of the latest advances in efficiency and air pollution control technology, GASP is concerned with one pollutant in particular: the facility’s emissions of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). For many years, Allegheny County’s residents have struggled with the adverse health effects of elevated levels of PM2.5 in the ambient air. DEP has a program for permitting new sources of air pollution that ensures areas with better air quality see no significant impact and areas that struggle with air quality issues see little or no impact at all. GASP believes DEP incorrectly considered impacts on Washington County and failed to address prevailing winds that will blow a significant portion of Beech Hollow’s emissions into Allegheny County. In fact, the Beech Hollow facility will be located less than one mile from the Allegheny County line. Our position is that Beech Hollow’s PM2.5 emissions will undoubtedly have an adverse impact on Allegheny County’s ambient air, and this should have triggered much stricter PM2.5 control measures than DEP initially required. See our full comments here. GASP will update you once DEP has responded to our comments. –Ned Mulcahy, Staff Attorney #DepartmentofEnvironmentalProtection #airpollution #beechhollow #particulatematter #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #DEP #ACHD #airquality

The Centers for Disease Control recommends that the average adult get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. Unfortunately, in a region plagued with unhealthy levels of pollution and an epidemic of asthma, where and when we exercise can be just as important as how much exercise we get. This truth is exacerbated in the case of children, whose lungs are still developing and sucking in more air per pound than adults. On May 3rd, 2017, GASP hosted Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir from the Pulmonology Division of Columbia University Medical Center to break this issue down and discuss her research, which is focused on understanding how to keep children living in urban environments polluted by air pollution active and healthy. Asthma inflames and narrows the airways of 8.4 percent of all United States children, explained Dr. Lovinsky-Desir. In the U.S., asthma costs $56 billion, 10.5 million missed school days, and over 200 childhood deaths per year. This burden disproportionately falls on children exposed to poor air quality, namely minorities and city-dwellers. To better understand the influence of pollution on asthmatic symptoms in New York City, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir and her research group asked a critical question: Does exposure to air pollutants negate the positive effects of exercise on overall lung health? Some research certainly seemed to say so. Exercise increases respiration rates, meaning that active people suck more air pollution into their lungs. In environments with heavy air pollution, this had been associated with decreased lung growth in children and reduced lung function in adults. So the question that remains is this: Is exercising worth the risk? To sort this out, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir strapped vests to 163 children between the ages of 9 and 14, 50 percent of whom were previously diagnosed with asthma. These vests were equipped with GPS units and monitors for black carbon, physical activity, and airway inflammation. The data that Dr. Lovinsky-Desir collected over two 24-hour periods reveals just how complex an issue this really is. While active children experience 20 percent lower airway inflammation than non-active children, they were also exposed to 25 percent more black carbon. Black carbon, a large component of the particulate matter small enough to penetrate deep into our lungs, can suppress lung development in children. Because of this, it is difficult to say how much better off the active children truly are, especially if active while exposed to high doses of pollution. Adding to the conversation on Wednesday were three panelists: Dr. Deborah Gentile, Director of Allergy and Asthma Clinical Research at the Allegheny Health Network; Dr. Ned Ketyer, a retired pediatrician with the Pediatric Alliance; and Patrice Tomcik, a Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. Dr. Gentile and Dr. Ketyer brought the topic back home, discussing their experience and research in the Pittsburgh area, where asthma plagues 26,000 children at rates 4 percent higher than the national average. “Our findings are significant because they show that, despite the availability of local primary care providers, asthma specialists, and excellent controller medications, asthma is underdiagnosed and undertreated in many local children,” Dr. Gentile remarked previously. “They also suggest that poor regional air quality contributes to the local incidence and severity of asthmatic disease.” Patrice Tomcik moved the discussion into a focus on natural gas development in rural areas surrounding Allegheny County. Tomcik has become a real leader on issues around fracking and methane, helping to educate and galvanize fellow parents in her community. Her voice strong with passion, she urged the audience to step up and defend our children’s health. In a country-wide comparison of air quality, the State of the Air Report ranked our 12-county region eighth-worst for year-round fine particulate matter and 29th worst for ozone pollution. Allegheny County receives an “F” grade for both measures. With such serious air pollution plaguing our region, many athletes are searching for answers to the question: How do I protect myself from poor air quality. Dr. Lovinsky-Desir left the audience with this advice: Exercise during low traffic times (not rush hour), and stay away from major roads and highways. And, before you go out and exercise, visit AirNow.gov to check your local air quality conditions. This event was a part of Athletes United for Healthy Air, an initiative of GASP to engage athletes of Southwestern Pennsylvania in the campaign for cleaner, healthier air quality. Past events have explored the link between air pollution and cardiovascular health, neurological health, and autism. To learn more about Athletes United for Healthy Air, click here. –Emily Persico, Student Conservation Association Sustainability Fellow #DrLovinskyDesir #AirNowgov #naturalgasdevelopment #AthletesUnitedforHealthyAir #airpollution #airquality #DrGentile

Recently, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) published its draft plan to reduce sulfur dioxide levels in the parts of the county (mostly in the Mon Valley) that are not attaining the national one-hour ambient air quality standard of 75 parts per billion. Due to a large amount of public comments received, ACHD is revising its plan and reopening it to public comment. Comments will be received from May 3 until 11:59 p.m., June 3, 2017. There will also be a public hearing on Thursday, June 1, for those wishing to make their comments in person. Please find all details about the public hearing and where to send written comments on ACHD’s web site. Please visit here to see a summary of the changes ACHD is making. This summary was presented at ACHD’s “Criteria Pollutant Subcommittee” meeting in April 2017. The full text of the revision to the plan can be found on ACHD’s web site. Thank you to all who commented and made this plan stronger, and please comment again to make sure that this plan is as strong as it needs to be to protect our citizens’ health. Stay tuned to GASP for more information on this important plan for our region. #criteriapollutant #airpollution #sulfurdioxide #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #publiccomment #ACHD #airquality

On Feb. 6, 2017 GASP submitted comments to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) regarding a draft plan approval for the Blue Moon Compressor Station in West Pike Run Township, Washington County. A plan approval is a permit to install, construct, or modify a source of air pollution. The facility’s operator applied for the draft plan approval that GASP commented on in March 2016. The draft plan approval would have authorized the installation of five compressor engines, two dehydrators, and associated water tanks and equipment. The facility had already installed and was operating five compressor engines, two dehydrators, and associated water tanks and equipment pursuant to a plan approval issued in May 2015. When aggregated, emissions from the new equipment at the facility and the already-installed equipment would have exceeded major air pollution source thresholds for oxides of nitrogen (NOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and formaldehyde, a hazardous air pollutant. In our comments, we argued that the operator’s original plan to construct and operate a smaller facility did not excuse it from its obligation to comply with permitting requirements for major sources of air pollution when, as a matter of fact, it changed its plans within a year and essentially doubled the size of the facility to meet demand that it reasonably could have anticipated. Specifically, we argued that the facility was subject to New Source Review (NSR) requirements, which, if applied, would have required the facility to: implement the Lowest Achievable Emission Rate, offset its potential emissions with Emission Reduction Credits, and conduct an alternatives analysis to demonstrate that the benefits produced by the facility will “significantly outweigh” the “environmental and social costs” that it imposes within Pennsylvania. Further, the facility’s operator would also have been required to show that its other facilities in Pennsylvania are being operated in compliance with applicable air pollution laws. NSR requirements were established to ensure that new major sources of air pollution would not, at a minimum, detract from the attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards, and compliance with NSR requirements is mandated by the Clean Air Act. We are pleased to report that our comments found an audience. We have learned that the facility’s operator has revised its original plans and will install air pollution control devices and accept operating limitations so that it can operate the facility as a minor source of air pollution. As modified from the original plans, the facility will be permitted to emit 79 fewer tons per year of NOx, 23.63 fewer tons per year of VOCs, and 3.61 fewer tons per year of all hazardous air pollutants (including 3.43 tons of formaldehyde). This is a victory for everyone who breathes the air in West Pike Run Township and areas downwind! –John Baillie, Staff Attorney #volatileorganiccompounds #DepartmentofEnvironmentalProtection #airpollution #NOx #JohnBaillie #VOCs #DEP #airquality

Join GASP for our next event in the Making the Connection Series: Physical Activity, Air Pollution, and Asthma in the Urban Environment on Wednesday, May 3rd from 5-8 p.m. at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir will discuss her research and afterward, there will be a panel of health and community experts to respond to her presentation. Networking and refreshments will be from 5-6 p.m. Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Pulmonology Division of Columbia University Medical Center in New York, NY. She specializes in evaluating and treating children with asthma and other childhood respiratory disorders. She is also a physician-scientist that is interested in understanding the complexities of asthma in children living in urban environments. Dr. Lovinsky-Desir will address the relationship between the health benefits of physical activity and the risk of increased air pollution exposure during physical activity in urban polluted environments. This work ultimately seeks to understand how to keep children living in urban environments with poor air quality active and healthy. Registration is $5 per person. Please sign up online before attending. #airpollution #airquality #DrLovinskyDesir

The Trump administration has proposed cutting the EPA’s budget by 25 percent, down to $6.1 billion, and to reduce its workforce by 20 percent, down to 12,400 employees, for the fiscal year starting October 1. Some programs will be cut by 90 percent or more, or even wiped out completely. Many of these programs have greatly benefited Southwestern Pennsylvania. Since we still have levels of air pollution that are higher than most other places in the country, we stand to be affected in an outsized manner. Here’s a look at some of the programs on the chopping block, and how those programs have benefited our region in the past. Over the last eight years, Pennsylvania has been awarded more than $12 million in Diesel Emission Reduction Act (DERA) funding, allowing a variety of fleets, including construction, ports, rail, and public buses to be replaced or retrofit with diesel emissions reduction equipment. Many of these projects cleaned up the oldest and dirtiest diesel vehicles and equipment being used right here in Allegheny County. The current budget proposal would cut Diesel Emission Reduction Act funding 100 percent. Allegheny County Health Department’s Air Pollution Control Program receives significant funding from the EPA to assist them in planning, developing, establishing, improving, and maintaining adequate programs for the prevention and control of air pollution or implementation of national primary and secondary air quality standards. Allegheny County has also recently received additional grant funding from EPA to purchase equipment for a variety of air quality monitoring activities, including a monitoring site to study NO2 concentrations near heavily trafficked roads and to assess the pollutant’s impact on vulnerable and susceptible populations. This critical funding could be cut by 30 percent. The Targeted Air Shed Grant is another EPA program at risk of being eliminated. This program’s main goal is to reduce air pollution in the nation’s areas with the highest levels of ozone and PM2.5 ambient air concentrations, like Allegheny County. Past funding, matched with U.S. Steel funding, allowed Clairton Coke Works to replace an old quench tower with a state-of-the-art, low-emissions quench tower, resulting in much less PM2.5 air pollution. The current budget proposal would completely eliminate the Targeted Air Shed Grant program. The proposed cuts affect many more important programs. Radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer in America, and Western Pennsylvania has levels of radon far above the national average. Funding for state radon programs in Trump’s proposal would be completely eliminated. Programs for lead, brownfield remediation, compliance monitoring, and civil enforcement—all cut. (To learn more about all of the proposed reductions, please see this article.) The cuts to these programs would be harmful to our nation’s citizens and especially to residents of areas with high levels of air pollution, like Allegheny County. According to the EPA, in 2020, the Clean Air Act Amendments will prevent around 240,000 early deaths. Most of the economic benefits (about 85 percent) are attributable to reductions in premature mortality associated with reductions in ambient particulate matter. The benefits to society exceed the compliance cost of the amendments by a factor of more than 30 to 1. In 2015, for 2/3 of the days, the Pittsburgh region’s air quality was not considered good by EPA’s standards for ozone and particulate matter. Allegheny County residents have a cancer risk from air pollution up to 20 times higher than residents of surrounding rural areas. And from 2013 to 2015, 10 of Allegheny County’s 14 PM2.5  air quality monitors registered annual concentrations that placed the readings in the worst 25% in the country. Any cuts to EPA’s important work will affect Allegheny County residents significantly. The Trump administration’s final budget request is scheduled to be released on 3/16. Tell Senators Pat Toomey and Bob Casey: the EPA and the Clean Air Act have been literal lifesavers for thousands of Pennsylvanians. Do not cut their budget! Senator Pat Toomey Email: https://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact Twitter: @SenToomey Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senatortoomey/ Phone numbers and office addresses: see the bottom of his Senate web page here: https://www.toomey.senate.gov/?p=contact Senator Robert Casey Email: https://www.casey.senate.gov/contact Twitter: @SenBobCasey Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SenatorBobCasey/ Phone numbers and office addresses: see the bottom of his Senate web page here: https://www.casey.senate.gov/ —Rachel Filippini, Executive Director #PM25 #NO2 #DieselEmissionReductionAct #airpollution #USSteel #CleanAirAct #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #ClairtonCokeWorks #airquality

The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) is a one-of-a-kind resource, in which industrial facilities annually report the type and amount of toxic chemicals they release to the land, air, water, and landfills. The information is high quality, comprehensive, and posted online for free. It can be searched by various ways, such as location of facility or type of industry. Communities, regulators, and industries have found the inventory to be very useful. For example, if a community finds out that a certain company wants to build a facility in their town, they can look at the company’s toxic releases in other towns, compare the same types of facilities, and make well-informed decisions with this information. Almost every large industry has to report to the TRI, but the oil and gas extraction industry, from the well pad to the processing plant, has been exempt from the TRI for decades. The Environmental Integrity Project has asked EPA to end this exemption through proposed federal rulemaking and is looking for public support. Here’s what you can do: Send an email to: turk.david@epa.gov by March 7. In the subject line include: EPA–HQ–TRI–2016–0390; FRL–9953–68, Addition of Natural Gas Processing Facilities to the TRI In your email, tell the EPA why you support the proposal requiring the addition of Natural Gas Processing facilities (NGP) to report to the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Share personal stories or concerns about what it’s like living near these operations, and include photos of compressor stations, processing plants, etc. if you have them. Tell them how the processing infrastructure has changed your lives, farms, homes, or health, and why full transparency of exactly what is being released from these polluting facilities is important to you. EIP has provided the information above as well as this fact sheet that you might wish to review as you write your comments. Thank you to Lisa Marcucci and Adam Kron at EIP for this information, and thank you to you for sharing your comments on this important issue! #LisaMarcucci #airpollution #EnvironmentalIntegrityProject #toxicreleases #ToxicReleaseInventory

Dear Fellow Breather, Another year is drawing to a close, and while some environmental victories have been achieved, our nation and our region still face serious environmental challenges—from climate change exacerbating droughts in one area and flooding in another, to rivers and streams contaminated by drilling waste, to harmful air pollution entering our bodies with each breath we take. Pittsburgh ranks as one of the top 10 most polluted cities in the nation with regard to short- and long-term particle pollution—particles that increase the risk of heart and lung disease, adverse birth outcomes, and premature death. We also suffer from high levels of ground-level ozone and numerous air toxics hotspots throughout the region, air pollution that causes everything from breathing difficulties to cancers. With the upcoming changes to our state and federal political landscape, many worry that our battles to reverse this environmental degradation will soon be even more difficult. GASP turns worry and frustration into education, advocacy, policymaking, and, when necessary, litigation. Through these actions we ensure that the region and its air quality continue to move in a healthy direction for all. Individual and foundation support this year has enabled us to make important gains, including: Urging regulators to eliminate the unacceptable backlog of air quality permits After GASP staff reviewed all major sources of air pollution in Southwestern Pennsylvania, we learned that approximately 30% of facilities are running without a current “Title V” operating permit. These air quality permits, granted by the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), are required for large air pollution sources and provide a “one-stop shop” that makes it easier for companies, regulators, and citizens to see what limits and standards apply to facilities and, in turn, for groups like GASP to track the companies’ compliance. In Allegheny County we found that of the 27 major sources of air pollution, nine have expired permits and two never received a Title V permit. Five of the nine air quality permits have been expired for more than five years, including two that expired in 2008. GASP undertook the work necessary to identify the problem and now we are aggressively pushing to eliminate the permit backlog. Other organizations have joined the call, adding to the pressure for action. Your gift will allow us to continue this critical work and keep us fighting to eliminate the permit backlogs and improve facility permits in 2017. Educating students and community members about air pollution and health From our Making the Connection event on the link between air pollution and brain health to our launching of the EPA School Flag Program in seven additional regional schools to partnering with Venture Outdoors to educate outdoor enthusiasts about lichens and air quality, we’ve educated hundreds of individuals this year about regional air pollution sources, how poor air quality affects health, and what individuals can do to champion clean air. In 2017 we will ramp up our educational efforts, focusing on athletes, medical professionals, and children. Is there a soccer league, physician, or youth program in your community that you’d like to connect us with? Let us know how we can help educate the organizations in which you are involved. A contribution today will allow us to reach more classrooms and more vulnerable citizens. Implementing new Clean Construction legislation New and improved Clean Construction legislation passed Pittsburgh City Council this summer. This law requires construction equipment on city projects to use the best available control technology. We are now working to ensure the current law’s implementation while planning to expand the law’s scope in the near future. We are also meeting with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority to work with them to pass policies covering their own construction projects. Diesel particulate matter is one of our region’s greatest air pollution cancer risks. Ensuring that the City implements Clean Construction is paramount to GASP’s efforts to reduce diesel emissions in the region. When we meet with municipal officials, it’s your membership and support that makes our arguments persuasive. Help us to continue the above air quality campaigns and many other important projects and efforts by donating today! With the election of Donald Trump and general rightward shift at most levels of government, there is a serious threat that the environmental victories achieved over the last few decades could be reversed. Your support of improved air quality and sensible, necessary regulation is critical—especially at the local and regional levels where GASP works most effectively. Please think of air quality this season, and donate to GASP by check or online here. Thank you for your support. Sincerely, Rachel Filippini Executive Director #airpollution #particulatepollution #diesel #CleanConstruction #dieselemissions #airquality

In August 2015 and May 2016, the Allegheny County Controller’s office reported on the Allegheny County Health Department’s (ACHD) compliance with regulations governing the timely issuance and renewal of operating permits for sources of air pollution in Allegheny County. The 2015 report discussed five major sources of air pollution in the county that had never been issued operating permits. The 2016 report highlighted a backlog of applications for renewals of expired operating permits for major and other sources of air pollution. GASP routinely collects and reviews operating permits for major sources of air pollution in Allegheny County and surrounding areas, so we checked whether ACHD had made progress in issuing and renewing permits to the sources identified in the Controller’s reports. For purposes of air quality permitting, major sources of air pollution in most of the counties surrounding Allegheny County are under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Southwest Regional Office, so we also looked at whether applications to issue and renew operating permits for major sources in those areas were similarly backlogged. This post compares how ACHD and the DEP’s Southwest Regional Office are performing their permitting functions with respect to major sources of air pollution. But first, some background on the legal requirements that apply to the agencies. Major sources of air pollution are required to obtain operating permits from state or local permitting programs. Because these programs must comply with requirements that are imposed by Title V of the Clean Air Act, the operating permits that they issue to major sources of air pollution are often called “Title V Operating Permits.” The Clean Air Act requires that state and local Title V permitting programs be self-financed, meaning a program must impose fees on the Title V sources under its jurisdiction that are sufficient to fund its operations. A major source’s Title V Operating Permit must include all applicable federal, state, and local air pollution law requirements. The Title V operating permit requirement improves major sources’ compliance with air pollution laws by eliminating confusion regarding which requirements apply to any particular source and by mandating that operators of such air pollution sources monitor and report their compliance with all such requirements. Although air pollution sources are required to comply with new applicable regulations that become effective after their Title V Operating Permits are issued, a source might avoid reporting on its compliance with such regulations until its permit is revised to include them. Accordingly, it is important for permitting programs to process renewal applications efficiently and keep permits up to date. Under ACHD and DEP regulations, an operating permit generally is valid for five years from the date it is issued. Between six and 18 months before an operating permit expires, the air pollution source’s owner or operator must submit an application for a renewal operating permit to ACHD or DEP if the source is to be authorized to continue operations after the expiration of its current operating permit. The regulations require that the agencies act on an application for a renewal permit within 18 months of the submission of a complete application. Here’s what we found: First, the 2015 Allegheny County Controller’s report noted that there were five major sources in Allegheny County that had never been issued Title V Operating Permits, despite the sources having submitted applications in the 1990s. Since August 2015, ACHD has issued Title V Operating Permits to three of those sources and has indicated to GASP that they plan to issue a Title V Operating Permit to another of the sources by the end of September. The last of the five sources operates subject to a federal court order that, at least for the time being, effectively precludes ACHD from issuing a Title V Operating Permit. By way of comparison, there are no major sources of air pollution subject to the jurisdiction of DEP’s Southwest Region that have never been issued a Title V Operating Permit. Second, we also looked at the agencies’ backlogs of applications for renewal permits.  We obtained copies of Title V Operating Permits and renewal applications for major sources by making requests under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law. We learned that nine major sources (out of 27 total, or 33%) in Allegheny County have pending applications to renew their Title V Operating Permits that ACHD has failed to act on within 18 months as its regulations require. Further, five of those nine permits have been expired for more than five years, including two permits that expired in 2008: FacilityLocationRenewal Application SubmittedLast Permit Expired Buckeye Pipe LineMoon Township8/8/20072/10/2008 Coraopolis TerminalCoraopolis8/9/20072/10/2008 U.S. Steel Irvin WorksWest Mifflin7/31/20092/17/2010 Bay Valley FoodsPittsburgh12/7/2009; 10/6/20156/13/2010 Universal Stainless and Alloy ProductsBridgeville6/16/201012/19/2010 Pittsburgh Allegheny ThermalPittsburgh3/17/20149/13/2014 NRG Energy Center PittsburghPittsburgh5/16/201411/18/2014 PPG Industries--SpringdaleSpringdale9/4/20145/18/2015 Allegheny EnergySpringdale6/11/2009; 5/29/201412/15/2015 These nine sites with backlogged renewal permit applications create a significant amount of pollution. In the aggregate, the sites’ emissions of the five pollutants for which emissions inventory data was available from ACHD for 2015, namely nitrogen oxide (“NOx”), sulfur oxide (“SOx”), volatile organic chemicals (“VOCs”), particulate matter (“PM10”), and fine particulate matter (“PM2.5”), exceeded 1,500 tons in 2015. One of the sites, U.S. Steel’s Irvin Works, had over 927 tons of emissions in 2015, making it the fourth largest stationary source of air pollution in Allegheny County. By way of comparison, DEP Southwest Regional Office has 74 major sources under its jurisdiction. DEP has failed to act on pending renewal applications for at least 21 of those sources (or 28%) within 18 months of submission of a complete renewal application as its regulations require. Ten of those 21 permits have been expired for more than five years, including most notably one permit that expired in 2004: FacilityLocationRenewal Application SubmittedLast Permit Expired Dominion Transmission Oakford Compressor StationSalem Township, Westmoreland County8/29/2003; 6/2/20143/1/2004 Consolidated Coal Bailey Prep. PlantRichhill Township, Greene County5/25/2006; 1/29/201411/28/2006 Flexsys Monongahela PlantCarroll Township, Washington County7/3/2006; 9/25/20121/3/2007 Ebensburg PowerCambria Township, Cambria County8/17/20062/19/2007 Allegheny Valley Connector LLC Laurel Ridge StationJackson Township, Cambria County5/11/2007; 1/2/20141/14/2008 U.S. GypsumAliquippa, Beaver County7/27/20091/27/2010 Allegheny Energy Gans Power StationSpringhill Township, Fayette County7/20/20091/27/2010 Ranbar Electrical MaterialsPenn Township, Westmoreland County11/15/20095/17/2010 Dominion Transmission Beaver Compressor StationNorth Sewickley Township, Beaver County3/18/201010/25/2010 Johnstown Specialty CastingsJohnstown, Cambria County10/26/20115/30/2012 Texas Eastern Armagh Compressor StationWest Wheatfield Township, Indiana County6/28/20127/31/2012 Texas Eastern Lilly Compressor StationCresson Township, Cambira County3/22/201210/10/2012 Dominion Transmission South Oakford Compressor StationHempfield Township, Westmoreland County1/11/201210/31/2012 Dyno NobelDonora, Washington County5/15/20121/1/2013 Texas Eastern Delmont Compressor StationSalem Township, Westmoreland County9/17/20124/29/2013 Shade LandfillShade Township, Somerset County1/10/20148/31/2014 Armstrong PowerSouth Bend Township, Armstrong County3/19/2014; 2/26/20159/9/2014 Greenridge Reclamation LandfillEast Huntingdon Township, Westmoreland County4/30/201410/30/2014 Dominion Transmission J.B. Tonkin Compressor StationMurrysville, Westmoreland County5/14/201411/24/2014 USA Valley LandfillPenn Township, Westmoreland County12/4/20146/18/2015 Summerill TubeScottdale, Westmoreland County1/16/20157/20/2015 This chart compares the number of sites under the respective jurisdictions of ACHD and the Southwest Regional Office with expired Title V Operating Permits, organized by the year in which each site’s last permit expired without being renewed: And while the stale permits sit, emissions could be increasing. The Environmental Integrity Project, working with GASP, analyzed emissions data for these sources and found that some facilities with expired Title V permits reported significantly higher emissions of regulated toxic pollutants than they did five years ago to EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory (“TRI”) database. One of these facilities, Ranbar Electrical Materials in Harrison City, nearly doubled its amount of air toxics reported to the TRI database since its last Title V expired in 2010, with the pollutants reported in the highest amounts in 2015 being xylene, methyl isobutyl ketone, and ethyl benzene, a possible human carcinogen. It is unacceptable that the agencies responsible for permitting major sources of air pollution in our area have allowed the operating permits for one-third of such sources to expire without acting on their pending renewal applications in a timely manner, especially in light of the requirement that major source permitting programs are to be self-financed. Both ACHD and DEP need to take immediate steps–including raising the fees that they impose on Title V sources–to eliminate their backlogs of applications for Title V Operating Permit renewals and prevent such backlogs from recurring. #airpollution #TitleV #CleanAirAct #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #DEP #ACHD #airquality