Good news for those working to be as sustainable as possible! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed update to the agency's Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing (Recommendations), which help federal government purchasers and others utilize private sector standards and ecolabels to buy products that are more sustainable and climate-friendly and contain safer chemical ingredients. This is the first time in nearly 10 years that EPA has comprehensively evaluated standards and ecolabels to determine whether to add them to the Recommendations. The Recommendations help to identify thousands of products and services across 35 categories that conserve energy or water, include more recycled content, or reduce the use of PFAS and single-use plastics. By helping federal purchasers identify and procure environmentally preferable products and services, the Recommendations can save taxpayers money, reduce climate impacts, and prevent pollution. The update proposes adding 14 standards and ecolabels to the Recommendations across three new product categories, covering healthcare, laboratories, and clothing and uniforms, and expanding the existing food service ware sub-category. If finalized, the updates to the Recommendations would give federal purchasers and other buyers new guidance and options for purchasing sustainable products and services in four categories, which EPA proposes to divide into nine sub-categories, including by expanding the existing sub-category for food service ware. The Recommendations currently include only one recommended ecolabel in the food service ware sub-category, which covers compostable products. If finalized, the updated Recommendations would include three additional standards and ecolabels for food service ware, covering products that are reusable, certified compostable, and certified recyclable. EPA is also providing a new resource that outlines current best practices for the procurement of food service ware sub-categories, which is available on EPA's website. EPA assessed the environmental sustainability of the third-party standards and ecolabels under the Framework for the Assessment of Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels , and also assessed for a third-party certification program to verify product conformance. In April 2022 , EPA announced stronger eligibility criteria for including standards and ecolabels in the Recommendations, which require each standard and ecolabel to have a competent third-party verification program and a current directory of qualifying products and services. EPA is proposing to remove seven standards or ecolabels because they do not meet these new requirements, are discontinued, or are no longer required by regulation. EPA will accept public comments on the proposed updates to the Recommendations for 30 days after publication via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0835 at Regulations.gov . EPA will use feedback it receives from public comments to inform the final updates to the Recommendations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week announced the launch of a new website, the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Funding Toolbox . Known as CRAFT for short, it is a user-friendly resource for technical assistance providers working with federal funding applicants and recipients to develop, apply for and implement climate-resilient investments. The website provides simple, easy-to-understand resources that can help users consider climate adaptation and resilience before, during and after applying for EPA funding opportunities. EPA is taking important steps to help its programs and funding applicants invest in projects that can withstand the impacts of climate change. CRAFT is a resource for technical assistance providers helping to guide investments of federal funding – including the historic funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act – to local solutions, while also supporting investments that deliver results in the face of climate change. The information in CRAFT can help federal funding applicants and recipients consider climate-related challenges to their projects at the outset, so taxpayer dollars can be invested wisely. CRAFT also supports the development of projects that advance multiple policy goals, such as achieving local flood resilience, adopting nature-based infrastructure solutions, and protecting the people and places most vulnerable to climate change. With CRAFT, interested parties can more easily navigate EPA's funding opportunities, consider climate resilience and adaptation as part of their investments, and meaningfully engage community members and other partners over the life of their projects.

Editor's Note: An Allegheny County Health Department hearing officer on Sept. 4 issued an order to dismiss U.S. Steel's appeal. You can read that document here. U.S. Steel has appealed the Nov. 21 Title V Operating Permit issued by the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), alleging it imposes numerous unlawful enforceable conditions and that regulators exceeded their authority when creating myriad emissions limits at the plant. The appeal was filed Dec. 21 but just uploaded to the ACHD legal docket Thursday afternoon. GASP staff is reviewing the appeal, which you can read for yourself here . “Why ACHD waited more than a month to make the appeal public is beyond us,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “It’s another example of how transparency is an afterthought for the department.“ This is the second legal challenge mounted by the company in recent weeks related to air quality regulation at the Clairton Coke Works. U.S. Steel on Jan. 17 filed a petition regarding ACHD's air quality enforcement procedures that led to a portion of the stipulated penalties it was assessed last year. GASP is currently reviewing the order and has submitted a public records request to ACHD seeking voluminous documents, videos, and photographs referenced in the order that were not published with the appeal document itself.

In these divided times, we can all agree that whether we live in suburban towns or city neighborhoods, everyone in Allegheny County deserves safe, reliable, dignified access to the places they need to go.  Consider this: Across the county, 30 percent of our friends and neighbors don’t drive a car.  Enter The Week Without Driving. It’s a nationwide movement to link the needs of disabled individuals and people of all ages with environmental movements and accessible community planning.  That’s why GASP is joining our friends at Bike Pittsburgh  and Pittsburghers for Public Transit to take the pledge and spread the word about the initiative. Yinz in? Because together, we can illustrate challenges and opportunities for non-drivers and call for change that improves mobility for all. You can participate as an individual, organization, or elected official. Here’s how.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service this week released an updated version of the popular AirNow Fire and Smoke Map to provide millions of people in the U.S. with more information they can use to protect themselves from wildfire smoke. The updated Fire and Smoke Map has a new look and feel, is designed to load more quickly, and includes information not available in the previous versions, such as: Air quality monitoring information on coarse particle pollution and ozone, both of which can increase because of wildfire smoke. More information on individual wildland fires, including the type of fire and level of fire activity, when available. Information from low-cost fine particle sensors in Canada, in cooperation with Environment and Climate Change Canada. The new version of the map allows users to see activity recommendations at a glance – or to expand the information to see more, including more information on actions to take to protect your health, charts showing how air quality has changed over the past week, and whether there are other fires within 30 miles of their locations. The map makes Smoke Outlook alerts more prominent and links to these forecasts, where available, to help the public better understand the possible impacts of smoke over the next several days. The Forest Service-led Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program issues Smoke Outlooks for certain large fires. EPA and the Forest Service made a beta version of the map available for public review in July; the new version reflects changes the agencies have made to date in response to public feedback. EPA and the Forest Service developed the Fire and Smoke Map to provide the public information on fire locations, smoke plumes, near real-time air quality, Smoke Outlooks for large U.S. wildfires, and protective actions to take -- all in one place. To give users the most localized air quality information possible, the map pulls data from monitors that regularly report to AirNow, temporary monitors such as those the Forest Service and air agencies have deployed near fires, and crowd-sourced data from nearly 15,000 low-cost sensors that measure fine particle pollution, the major harmful pollutant in smoke. The map shows this data in the familiar color-coding of the U.S. Air Quality Index. You can view the Fire and Smoke Map  on the AirNow website or select the smoke icon on the bottom right of the AirNow smartphone app. To view the map in Spanish or to select a modified AQI color scale for users with certain color vision deficiencies, click the settings icon at the top right corner of the map. Download the AirNow app: Apple App Store:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epa-airnow/id467653238   Google Play Store:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.saic.airnow

The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) is seeking public comment on the revised Title V operating permit for U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson facility in Braddock, and if you’re thinking to yourself, “Didn’t we JUST go through this process?” you are correct.   Here’s what’s going on:   Many of you joined GASP in June 2022 to implore ACHD to issue the facility a Title V operating permit that was as protective of public health as possible.  You can read more about all that here.  On Aug. 1, 2023, ACHD issued that permit, which you can read here .   But it wasn’t a done deal yet. That’s because both U.S. Steel AND the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) successfully made appeals that required substantive enough changes to necessitate a second public comment period.   So, what are those changes?   For the most part, the permit amendments required by the U.S. Steel appeal dealt with language revisions and corrections to various SO2 limits for Blast Furnaces 1 and 3.   The changes necessitated by the EPA appeals are a bit more substantive – and ones GASP supports. They: increased testing frequency of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO) testing from once every four years to once every two years required the facility to calculate the daily emissions of particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxides (SOX), nitrogen oxides (NOX), CO, and VOCs as part of its compliance demonstration require the facility to calculate the monthly emissions of PM, SOX, NOX, CO, and VOCs Require that U.S. Steel to monitor the oxygen content of Edgar Thomson’s Riley Boilers’ exhaust. Proper oxygen levels typically improve combustion efficiency, which in turn reduce CO and VOC emissions removed the short-term limits on PM emissions from Edgar Thomson’s cooling tower after ACHD re-evaluated the limits and determined that they were back-calculated from annual limits and not representative of actual limits. Because of the nature of the cooling towers, they are not enforceable limits. ACHD added a requirement to calculate monthly emissions.   Comments on these amendments will be accepted at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at:   Greater Valley Community Services 300 Holland Avenue Braddock, PA 15104   Those who wish to address ACHD at the hearing need to sign up to speak by 6 p.m. Sept. 22. You can do that here.   Written comments will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. Sept. 23. They can be sent by email to: aqpermits@alleghenycounty.us .

Media Contact: Amanda Gillooly GASP Communications Manager amanda@gasp-pgh.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GASP Pittsburgh Seeking Applicants for ‘Fresh Voices for Clean Air’ Youth Education Initiative The unique learning opportunity is open to Allegheny County high school students PITTSBURGH - The Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) is seeking Allegheny County students in grades 9-12 to join our new cohort of Fresh Voices for Clean Air - a program that’s focus this year will be creating an oral history project based on people’s real-life experiences with air quality. Participants in the program will learn all about local environmental issues while developing skills related to interviewing, editing, story-telling, media, research, and more. Here’s how Fresh Voices for Clean Air works: Throughout the 2024-25 school year, the group will gather twice a month via a mix of in-person and virtual meetings.  The group will participate in discussions with each other and guest speakers, both to learn more about air quality and to build skills that will help participants become more effective environmental advocates. “Our focus this year will be developing and implementing a cross-generational oral history project exploring real-life experiences of air quality in Allegheny County,” GASP Education and Program Manager Laura Kuster explained. “This year’s cohort will receive training and design the project for the first part of the year and will then begin conducting outreach and interviewing people in the latter half.”   She said the cohort will decide the direction of the project based on the group's interests and skill-building goals. For example, the group may want to edit the interviews into a podcast, video project, zine, exhibit or other format to share with the public. The project will be a group effort, with the support of GASP staff and partners. Bonus: Students who actively participate throughout the program (October 2024 - June 2025) will be eligible for a $100 award at the program's end. Interested or know someone who might be? We invite you to apply today . The application deadline is Sept. 23.  The Fresh Voices for Clean Air  initiative was made possible by funding through the Grable Foundation.    The   Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) , a non-profit founded in 1969, works to improve air quality in southwestern Pennsylvania in order to safeguard human, environmental, and economic health. GASP is a diligent watchdog, educator, litigator and policymaker on a variety of air quality issues impacting our region.  ###

Swissvale Councilwoman Shawn Alfonso Wells acknowledges that yes, navigating the world of sustainability can be difficult.  She said the only way to forge ahead as a municipality mulling ways to mitigate climate change is through “future-forward thinking.” “We’re pretty on top of doing some green things,” she said, adding: “You need to be planning for 20 to 30 years down the line.” And she said that’s what she and her fellow elected officials are working to do. One of the most recent green initiatives was the addition of electric vehicles to its municipal fleet, as well as the construction of a public charging station on Aurelius Street near the Dickson STEAM Academy athletic field thanks to the partnership with Green Edge Tech  and Duquesne Light. Then there were the borough’s first curbside 24/7 accessible electric vehicle charging stations unveiled to the public last fall complete with a celebration commemorated with a ribbon cutting ceremony, remarks from local dignitaries and station testing by resident EV owners. Swissvale also successfully sought $700,000 from Allegheny County Health Department’s Clean Air Fund to replace its trash and recycling trucks with electric versions as well as install two charging stations at the borough’s Public Works Department. But how did they get started on their municipal EV journey and secure those investments? Wells said it could not have been done without help from CONNECT.  “(They) work really hard to make sure resources are available,” she said. “And (they) really made sure we were on track throughout the process.” In addition to the technical and other support provided by CONNECT staff, Wells said just being in contact with municipal officials from other parts of the county and seeing what they are working on has been inspirational. “You get to see what they are doing, and you want to do similar stuff,” she said. “It’s such a learning experience.” Right now, the world of electrification isn’t the only green initiative in the works. The Borough is also in the process of becoming certified as a Bird Town Pennsylvania . This program through the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania  seeks to build a network of individuals, community groups and municipalities dedicated to increasing both the quality and quantity of bird-friendly habitats in Pennsylvania.  And then there’s the borough’s Open Spaces initiative that aims to transform vacant lots into places the community can enjoy - think dog parks, areas with benches and picnic tables, and butterfly gardens. Her advice to fellow municipal officials navigating the sometimes-confusing world of sustainability? “Remember that it’s the small things,” Alfonso Wells said. “Look at the low hanging fruit - it’s a start!”

U.S. Steel has been a perennial air polluter, so GASP has been closely following news related to Nippon Steel’s pending acquisition of the Mon Valley Works facilities.  Last night, the company dropped some significant news: That it had committed to investing “no less” than $1 billion to “replace and/or upgrade the existing hot strip mill and other facilities at Mon Valley.” According to a Nippon release, this investment would include “improving yield, increasing energy efficiency, improving product quality, and enhancing overall operating effectiveness.” Here’s what they said in a release: Nippon Steel plans to ensure Mon Valley Works operates for decades to come and will undertake the necessary investments so that it remains viable and provides jobs for future generations of steelworkers in Pennsylvania.  As part of that commitment and following the closing of the Transaction, Nippon Steel will replace and/or upgrade the existing hot strip mill at Mon Valley Works and other facilities.  Nippon Steel believes that a transformed Mon Valley Works will expand U. S. Steel's ability to serve a broader range of markets and customers, create additional high-grade steel capabilities, strengthen the competitive positioning of Mon Valley's blast furnace operations, and secure American steel supply. An additional $300 million in the Gary Works was also announced.  Nippon said it “continues to see numerous opportunities for technology transfer to U. S. Steel following the closing of the transaction to reduce the environmental footprint and extend the longevity of the USW-represented facilities.” How are they gonna do that? Here’s how they explained it: This includes sharing Nippon Steel's COURSE50 technology (currently proven to reduce carbon emissions by 33% in a test blast furnace) and progress on carbon capture and storage technologies, among other environmental benefits with U. S. Steel. So, what’s the possible timeline on the pending acquisition? Nippon said it expects the transaction to close in the second half of 2024, subject to the fulfillment of the remaining customary closing conditions, including receipt of required U.S. regulatory approvals. GASP continues to follow this issue closely and will keep you posted.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Monday announced a new registered apprenticeship program to train workers to plug oil and gas wells, "helping to protect the environment and public health while providing workers with in-demand skills and family-sustaining wages." Here's what you need to know: The new program will be run out of the United Mine Workers of America Career Centers, Inc.’s (UMWACC) Ruff Creek Training Center in Greene County where Gov. Josh Shapiro visited earlier this month to highlight bipartisan investments in workforce development.   UMWACC’s Gas Well Capping Technician program – the first-ever registered apprenticeship program for UMWA – provides workers with the knowledge to plug abandoned and orphaned wells that have the potential to cause health, safety, or environmental concerns and to mitigate harmful emissions and provide an economic boost to rural Appalachian communities transitioning away from fossil fuel economies.  “We have a huge abandoned well problem in Pennsylvania, and we need qualified and well-trained people to plug them. There are more than 350,000 orphaned and abandoned wells across our Commonwealth – and they make up nearly 8% of our total methane emissions.” said DEP Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley said in a news release. “Sooner or later, every orphaned well is going to be a threat to the environment and public health, and we need people with the skills and training to plug the wells and restore the surrounding landscape. In addition to removing the threat that old wells pose, some active wells could find new life as geothermal wells, capturing buried heat for clean energy.”  The Gas Well Capping Technician program is officially registered with the Apprenticeship and Training Office (ATO), housed within the Department of Labor & Industry (L&I), and will train workers on the following topics: safety, well capping techniques, cement properties and skills, and land remediation." In 2022 the U.S. Department of the Interior awarded Pennsylvania an initial grant of $25 million to plug orphaned and abandoned gas wells. More information about the orphan and abandoned well plugging program is on the DEP website: Rewriting Pennsylvania's Legacy ( pa.gov ) .