Longtime Clairton resident Art Thomas didn’t mince words Wednesday when he spoke before the Allegheny County Board of Health, telling members that if he was a teacher, he would assign the health department an F grade for air quality enforcement. Mr. Thomas was one of many who spoke out at the meeting to demand better from public health officials on air quality matters, asking them to improve the frequency and substance of public communications surrounding air pollution issues and to beef up efforts to stem emissions from the county’s industrial bad actors – with U.S. Steel being called out specifically. GASP’s Executive Director Patrick Campbell joined Mr. Thomas and others to speak out Wednesday. Here’s what he told board of health members: At the start of this new year, I suspect we are all even more keenly aware of the preciousness and precariousness of life. I suspect you already know that. And I suspect that is why each of us recognizes the burden of responsibility to the world around us, to our loved ones, to ourselves, and to the respected institutions that mirror our passions and priorities. Those of you sitting on this board made a decision to volunteer your time and talent to advise the county on issues related to public health. You knew you could help make a difference and your charge among other things is, “to prevent or fix conditions that constitute a threat to public health.” While we have made some progress, Allegheny County residents still suffer unhealthy air quality far too often for officials to take a victory lap. Residents have stood before you many times telling their stories. They’ve told you about rushing their children to the emergency room for acute asthma symptoms, about waking up gasping for air in the middle of the night, about worrying whether or not to let their kids play outside on days when air quality is particularly bad. It’s a tragedy because life is far too precious and precarious to miss a single minute, fearful of poor air quality. I’m here again to ask you to take action on an issue that’s had very real effects on quality of life and public health: The alarming number of H2S exceedances that continue in the Mon Valley. In 2021, there were 54 exceedances of PA’s 24-hour average for H2S at the Liberty monitor. There were 18 others at the North Braddock monitor. That’s more than twice the number of exceedances over 2020. Despite residents’ pleas for transparency, ACHD has remained silent. All the community knows is that ACHD issued an H2S-related enforcement action against U.S. Steel in April 2021. There’s been no communication about what’s causing the exceedances or what’s being done to stem them. No additional details have been released regarding that enforcement action, either. I am asking you today to do all you can to provide more frequent and substantive updates about what the department is doing to help ensure public health, residents’ health, and quality of life are protected. It seems worth mentioning that we already have the first H2S exceedance in the books for 2022 at the Liberty monitor. The first of the year happened the day before the board of health meeting. Powerful testimony was also given by our friend mark Dixon, a local environmental activist and filmmaker who recently released the trailer for his upcoming documentary, “Inversion: Pittsburgh’s Unfinished Business of Pittsburgh Air.” Here’s what he had to say: “Hello. My name is Mark Dixon and I live in Squirrel Hill South in Pittsburgh. Rachel Filippini recently left her role as Executive Director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), and I commend her for her service to our community. Oliver Morrison at PublicSource wrote an article about her departure and requested comment from Allegheny County. I am speaking up today out of concern for the deeply disappointing statement released by Amie Downs, spokesperson for County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. The statement highlights a profound and troubling misunderstanding of the essential role of community members and organizations in advocating for a clean environment. Per the PublicSource article, the county statement states re: it’s ‘increasingly aggressive measures.’ ‘We also understand that for the activists, these actions and substantial progress will never be enough,’ the statement reads. ‘If there aren’t complaints and issues raised by those extremists, then they are less able to raise funds to continue their operations.” I was deeply disturbed by this negative characterization of community members as extremists. What I believe is actually happening is that community members are simply seeking clean air, and sometimes raise funds to hire professional staff, including lawyers, to ADDRESS issues that the County has not sufficiently resolved for DECADES. Despite some air quality improvements, our region remains one of the most polluted in the nation. Furthermore, over 68,000 complaints have been submitted via the SmellPGH app since 2016, averaging over 900 per month – submitted for free by community members. Are we extremists if we don’t want to breathe foul-smelling SO2 or H2S emissions many times each month? Are we extremists if we don’t want to live with some of the worst air in the nation? Are we extremists if we don’t want especially young, poor, sick, or vulnerable populations to suffer from foul air? Are we extremists if we send money to an organization seeking to represent our interests to a county that celebrates lackluster progress and discounts the testimonies of countless residents clamoring for change? Perhaps most disappointing, however, is the utter silence of the ACHD leadership and board in response to this statement by the county. You may not have considered how offensive it is to be regarded as “extremists” by your own government when you just want to breathe clean air, but now you know. It is deeply offensive and troubling. I will yield the rest of my speaking time to the ACHD board so that you may consider a vote to formally register your disapproval of the language used by the County to characterize air quality advocates as extremists. Do you disapprove or not? Please discuss. And thank you for your consideration. It’s also worth noting that board of health members did not choose to weigh in, moving on to the next speaker without any comment at all. But at the end of the meeting, Board Member Dr. Edith Shapira *did* take a moment to thank all who addressed the board. We would be remiss if we didn’t also mention tremendous public comments from our friends at Allegheny County Clean Air Now (ACCAN), Breathe Project, and Clean Air Council. Paul Gough of the Pittsburgh Business Times has a great writeup on their poignant testimony – we encourage you to read it if you’re able. If you’re not able to access that story, no worries: You can read Breath Project Executive Director Matt Mehalik’s comments here. You can read ACCAN member Angelo Taranto’s comments here. And you can read CAC’s Jay Ting Walker’s comments here. In other business: Bogen provided an update on the newly enacted Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode rule, indicating that all 16 regulated facilities submitted the required mitigation plans and that Air Quality Program staff members were in the process of reviewing them. She noted the plans became effective upon submission but indicated that ACHD would provide guidance to operators if changes were required. She also told the board that ACHD expected U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works operating permit renewal to be posted for public comment by the end of the month and that a public hearing would be scheduled. Rest assured that GASP legal staff is ready to review the document and provide comments. Stay tuned, we’ll share more details on our blog when we have them. Bogen said ACHD is still seeking candidates for the Deputy of Environmental Health position vacated by Jim Kelly in June. #H2S #airpollution #H2Sexceedance #USSteel #LibertyMonitor #H2Sviolations #ClairtonCokeWorks #MonValleyAirPollutionEpisodeRule #airquality

GASP on Monday lauded Gov. Tom Wolf’s veto of a Senate resolution that would have put a pin in Pennsylvania’s opportunity to enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (otherwise known as RGGI). “GASP is appreciative of Gov. Wolf for the veto. We have long known that Pennsylvania contributes a disproportionate volume of climate change-causing air pollution in the United States and the time to address the issue is quickly running out,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “There is no denying that we are in a climate emergency. It’s imperative now more than ever that we must take drastic, aggressive action to reduce these air pollutants driving climate change.” Here’s the press release Wolf’s office issued this afternoon: Gov. Tom Wolf today vetoed and disapproved Senate Concurrent Regulatory Review Resolution 1, which would have disabled the commonwealth’s opportunity to enter the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) and effectively achieve climate goals and reduce carbon emissions. The concurrent resolution is also procedurally defective, as the General Assembly failed to adopt it within the statutory timeframe prescribed in the Regulatory Review Act. Pennsylvania is facing a climate crisis. RGGI is a solution that would stimulate the economy to the tune of $2 billion​ while reducing harmful greenhouse gases. This is a plan that 72 percent of Pennsylvanians support. By reducing air pollution, it would improve public health with 30,000 fewer respiratory hospital visits. Gov. Wolf’s Senate Concurrent Regulatory Review Resolution 1 veto message: “I am vetoing, disapproving, and returning the Concurrent Resolution because Final Form Regulation 7-559 is a vital step for Pennsylvania to reduce carbon emissions and achieve our climate goals.  Addressing the global climate crisis is one of the most important and critical challenges we face. Final Form Regulation 7-559 authorizes Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) under the authority of the Air Pollution Control Act.  While the Republican-controlled General Assembly has failed to take any measures to address climate change, by joining RGGI, my Administration will take a historic, proactive, and progressive approach that will have significant positive environmental, public health, and economic impacts. In addition to the environmental benefits, participating in this initiative will allow Pennsylvania to make targeted investments that will support workers and communities affected by energy transition.” With power generation being one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, joining RGGI is a commonsense solution that would have an immediate impact on Pennsylvania’s climate and public health. Governor Wolf has prioritized addressing climate change, one of the most important global challenges of our lifetime. In 2019, the governor set Pennsylvania’s first statewide climate goals, aiming to reduce greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050. Participating in RGGI would help toward achieving these goals. Learn more about the Wolf Administration’s efforts to address the climate crisis in the Pennsylvania Climate Action Plan. #GovTomWolf #methane #FinalFormRegulation7559 #greenhousegases #RegionalGreenhouseGasInitiative #RGGI #ClimateChange #emissions #ClimateCrisis

Remember back in September when famously litigious U.S. Steel asked an Allegheny County Health Department hearing officer to put the kibosh on long-sought updates to local coke oven regulations expected to help better protect public health? U.S. Steel already took a bow, telling the Pittsburgh Business Times in an “exclusive” story Friday that it had won the case. But GASP staff took a look at the Dec. 6 ruling and think it’s a draw at best. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, let’s all get caught up on the recent past: In September, attorneys for U.S. Steel asked ACHD’s hearing officer to order ACHD to stop pursuing the proposed rulemaking regarding coke oven battery emissions and to rule that it does not comply with a high-profile, controversial settlement agreement and order the company and department entered into in 2019. That agreement came in the wake of a 2018 Clairton Coke Works fire that knocked out air pollution control devices and contributed to abysmal air quality for weeks. Why is it important? We’ll let our senior staff attorney John Baillie break it down: “That settlement agreement resolved four enforcement orders that ACHD issued as a result of violations of emissions limitations at the Clairton Coke Works,” he explained. “Among other things, the Settlement Agreement provided that new regulations pertaining to the Clairton Coke Works be ‘technically feasible.’” What is “technically feasible” is based on three criteria U.S. Steel and ACHD agreed to in that settlement (fair notice: this is where things get a little more complicated): Requirements must take into consideration the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s statistical Upper Prediction Limit methodology across all batteries based on inspections between Dec. 24, 2013 to Dec. 23, 2018; More stringent standards must be supported by a demonstrated compliance rate of not less than 99 percent for all regulated emissions points on the Clairton batteries over any consecutive 12-month period during a five-year period on a battery-by-battery basis; and More stringent standards must be supported by a demonstration that the standard correlates with a measurable reduction in hydrogen sulfide and benzene levels at the Liberty Monitor, an ACHD-run air quality monitor located approximately 1.5 miles north of the Clairton Coke Works. What was being proposed in those regulations? In November 2020, ACHD published proposed revisions pertaining to coke ovens, which included: reduced limits for sulfur compounds in the coke oven gas produced by coke ovens; the inclusion of five new sulfur compounds (in addition to hydrogen sulfide) in the determination of the amount of sulfur in coke oven gas; making definitions relating to visible emissions from pushing operations broader; The imposition of new limitations of topside emissions from coke oven batteries. ACHD contended that these revisions were required to bring its coke oven regulations up to par with state and federal requirements; U.S. Steel opposed the revisions based on the notion that ACHD did not show they complied with the “technically feasible” requirement in the 2019 settlement agreement. And the ruling? “His decision split the difference,” Baillie explained. As for U.S. Steel’s “win?” The hearing officer determined that the proposed revisions relating to reduced sulfur limits and the inclusion of new sulfur compounds in the calculation of compliance with those limits were not required by state or federal law, and thus invalid because ACHD attempted to impose them without complying with the 2019 settlement agreement. But ACHD got a win of its own: The hearing officer determined that the revisions relating to pushing emissions and topside emissions were required by state law, and thus valid despite ACHD’s not having complied with the 2019 settlement agreement. For those who might not be intimately familiar with the coke-making process: Pushing emissions occur when coke is unloaded or “pushed” from the coke oven battery. Topside Emissions means any smoke and/or particulate matter emissions from one or more points on the top side of a coke oven battery (excluding charging emissions, which are generated from “charging” or transferring coal into the coke ovens). “We just want to make sure that when we talk about who won and who lost, we remember why tighter coke oven regulations were necessary in the first place: To better protect public health in the Mon Valley, where residents continue to suffer from high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide pollution that are attributable to emissions from the Clairton Coke Works,” GASP’s Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. He continued: “We urge ACHD and U.S. Steel to work together to devise new regulations that bring this pollution to an end and that comply with their 2019 settlement agreement so that residents can get a reprieve from industrial pollution that’s plagued the Mon Valley. Nobody is a winner in this scenario until air quality and in turn, public health is improved.” Editor’s Note: You can read the 17-page ruling in its entirety here. #H2Sexceedances #cokeovenregulations #hydrogensulfide #USSteel #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #ClairtonCokeWorks #airquality

It was the second such exceedance of the year at that air quality monitor, according to preliminary data. As a reminder, H2S concentrations at the Liberty monitor exceeded the state 24-hour average standard 54 times last year – which was more than two times 2020’s numbers. There were 18 other such exceedances at Allegheny County Health Department’s air quality monitor in North Braddock Borough. Despite the regularity with which these exceedances occur – and despite regularly calling on ACHD to better communicate the issue with residents – health department leadership has stayed completely quiet. Yes, it issued an H2S-related enforcement action against U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in April (and an associated press release), but no further information has been provided since then – not on the action specifically or the H2S problem generally. “GASP takes pride in being an air quality watchdog and helping to keep people informed on when air quality is poor or exceeded standards,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “But residents should be able to expect the people charged with protecting their public health to communicate with them on issues that impact their day-to-day lives.” He continued: “We are calling specifically on ACHD COO Patrick Dowd to take swift action to ensure ACHD develops a communications strategy that better informs residents about these H2S exceedances as well as short-term bouts of unhealthy air that threaten public health but do not meet the criteria for a Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode alert.” #H2S #hydrogensulfide #LibertyMonitor #MonValley #PatrickCampbell #hydrogensulfideexceedance #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #airqualitymonitor #ACHD #airquality

Good news, everybody: A recording is now available for our recent event, Making the Connection: The Alarming Link Between Pollution & Mental Health. For those who did not have this event on their radar: Our panel discussion featured the award-winning local investigative journalists – Julie Grant of The Allegheny Front and Kristina Marusic of Environmental Health News – who authored an explosive series exploring the connection between air pollution and mental illness. Their investigation into the mental health impacts of air and water pollution in western Pennsylvania found alarming evidence that residents throughout the region are likely suffering changes to their brains due to pollution in the surrounding environment. The reporting also uncovered the growing gap in mental health care as more people are traumatized by worsening climate change. But we’ll let them tell you more. Check it out: Editor’s Note: You can – and should – check those stories out here. Powerful stuff! #airpollutionandmentalhealth #airpollution #makingtheconnection #WESA #EnvironmentalHealthNews #KristinaMarusic #airquality

Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) in December 2021 provided its yearly analysis and summary of air quality monitoring data, posting to its website the 2020 Annual Air Quality Report. This report “reflects air quality as sampled and validated by ACHD through the 2020 calendar year.” The 44-page document, which was published without fanfare, can be read in its entirety here. Reading about 2020 air quality in 2022 might seem dated or obsolete but this report is worth checking out. Why? Simply put, it is ACHD’s most comprehensive look at air quality data. The report provides the previous year’s data and 20-year trends. For pollutant standards that require averages over consecutive years, multi-year averages are given. Exceedances are also given for the monitored pollutants. (For those who may be unfamiliar: An exceedance is a concentration that goes above a standard but does not necessarily constitute a “violation” of a standard. For some standards, a violation is a collection of several exceedances over a multi-year period.) Here is a summary of exceedances for federal standards provided in the report: Although there are no federal standards for hydrogen sulfide, Pennsylvania standards for protection against odor nuisances are 0.1 ppm on a one-hour basis and 0.005 ppm on a 24-hour average basis. The report indicates that in 2020, Pennsylvania’s 24-hour H2S average concentration was exceeded on 25 days at the Liberty monitor. There were two other such exceedances at the North Braddock monitor. “While we noted that ACHD Director Dr. Bogan mentioned the availability of the report at the latest Board of Health meeting, its quiet release is another example of how department leadership fails to adequately prioritize communications with residents about air quality issues,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “Sharing this report with commentary would help residents better understand the data and its public health implications. We encourage ACHD to be a little louder with these sorts of informative materials in the future.” #airqualityexceedances #PM25 #H2S #H2Sexceedance #hydrogensulfide #DrDebraBogen #alleghenycountyairquality #particulatematter #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #airquality

Sadly, if you live in the Mon Valley, this likely isn’t news: Air quality was terrible early Saturday, with AirNow.gov showing “unhealthy” NowCast AQI values that were – for a time – the worst in the nation. Users took to the CMU CREATE Lab’s SmellPGH app to share their complaints and concerns, describing physical symptoms like nausea, headaches, scratchy throats, and respiratory trouble. One user noted the lack of action from the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), writing, “You are ruining our quality of life.” Many, many others lamented the overpowering stench. The culprits? Air quality monitor data showed elevated concentrations of many pollutants Saturday but undoubtedly hydrogen sulfide (H2S) – a flammable, colorless gas produced during the coke-making process (among other things) that smells like rotten eggs – played a part. Exposure to low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide may cause irritation to the eyes, nose, or throat. It may also cause difficulty in breathing for some asthmatics. The EPA says exposure to low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide may also cause headaches, poor memory, tiredness, and balance problems. People usually can smell hydrogen sulfide at concentrations as low as 0.0005 parts per million. Concentrations exceeded that threshold handily on Saturday. In fact, the H2S concentration at Allegheny County Health Department’s air quality monitor in Liberty Borough averaged 0.007 ppm over the full day. That exceeds Pennsylvania’s 24-hour average limit of 0.005 ppm. Saturday marked the fourth exceedance so far this year at the Liberty monitor. For those trying to keep track: H2S concentrations at the Liberty monitor exceeded the Pennsylvania 24-hour average standard 54 times last year – which was more than twice 2020’s numbers. There were 18 other such exceedances at Allegheny County Health Department’s air quality monitor in North Braddock Borough. Despite the regularity with which these exceedances occur and our regular calls to action asking ACHD to do better when it comes to communicating the issue with residents, Chief Operating Officer Patrick Dowd and health department leadership have so far refused to weigh in on the issue publicly. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again now: We don’t know why ACHD has refused to be more transparent on this issue. “Their silence is telling residents plenty,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “We are again asking Mr. Dowd to do everything in his power as chief operating officer to create a more robust communications plan for the air quality program.” What do we know about what might be causing all these H2S exceedances? We know that ACHD issued an H2S-related enforcement action against U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in April 2021 (as well as an associated press release), but unfortunately, no other details have since been provided to the public. “These H2S exceedances and bouts of unhealthy air happen too frequently for residents to hear nothing from health officials,” Campbell said. #H2S #airpollution #MonValleyairquality #hydrogensulfide #USSteel #MonValley #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #ClairtonCokeWorks #USSteelClairtonCokeWorks #airquality

The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) has issued a notice of applicability to Magnus Productions, telling the company that it must comply with the recently approved Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode Rules. Here’s what happened: ACHD on Jan. 27 issued an amended permit to the company for the operation of the former Braddock Recovery facility at U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson plant, making it subject to the new rules. The company has until April 27 to submit plans – one for the watch phase and one for the warning phase – detailing how it will reduce its generation of both fine and coarse particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10 respectively) in the event of an air pollution event. Never heard of Magnus Productions? The company operates Braddock Recovery, Inc., which is located on U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thompson Plant site. This facility receives waste products from U.S. Steel, including furnace flue dust, slag and sludge, mill scale, and coke fines, dries them in a rotary kiln fired with coke oven gas, combines them with lime, cement, sodium silicate, water, bentonite, and molasses in a wet mixing process in two pugmills, and forms the moist mix into briquettes. These finished briquettes are piled on-site with a radial stacker and then loaded onto railcars and sent back to US Steel to be used in the furnaces. Magnus Productions is the 17th facility to be subject to the new Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode rules. Just last week, ACHD announced that it had approved the plans submitted by 10 operators required to comply with the Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode rules and rejected six others – including those for U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works and Edgar Thomson facilities. You can read more about why ACHD rejected U.S. Steel’s mitigation plans on our blog. Just as a reminder about those rules: The Mon Valley Episode Rule is an addition to the local Air Pollution Control Regulations and was signed into law in September 2021 by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald to develop and implement a system to respond to weather-related inversions in the Mon Valley, which can result in episodes of high levels of particulate matter pollution that can impact public health, exacerbating conditions like asthma and cardiovascular disease. Under the rule, air quality staff monitors pollution forecasts for conditions that could lead to an episode. When conditions are likely to exceed acceptable levels for the Mon Valley, sources are required to follow approved mitigation plans to reduce their emissions. An Air Pollution Watch is issued when weather conditions are forecast to cause a high concentration of particulates in the Mon Valley, and an Air Pollution Warning is issued when the exceedance occurs and is expected to continue for 24 hours. The rule applies to sources within or near the following municipalities: Braddock, Braddock Hills, Chalfant, Clairton, Dravosburg, Duquesne, East McKeesport, East Pittsburgh, Elizabeth Borough, Elizabeth Township, Forest Hills, Forward, Glassport, Jefferson Hills, Liberty, Lincoln, McKeesport, Munhall, North Braddock, North Versailles, Port Vue, Rankin, Swissvale, Turtle Creek, Versailles, Wall, West Elizabeth, West Mifflin, White Oak, Wilkins, Wilmerding and Whitaker. The department communicates these warnings and watches to the public through the Allegheny Alerts system. Users can choose to receive these communications via email, text, and/or phone call. To sign up go here. Editor’s Note: Click here to read a guidance document ACHD has provided to facilities subject to the rule. #MonValleyAirPollution #MagnusProductions #USSteel #MonValleyWarning #MonValleyWatch #EdgarThomsonWorks #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #ClairtonCokeWorks #MonValleyAirPollutionEpisodeRule #airquality

As we predicted, Pennsylvania’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) has become the subject of litigation. According to reports from the Associated Press, Pennsylvania’s Legislative Reference Bureau has failed to publish the regulations that would implement RGGI in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, which would have been the final step to put the regulations into effect. “It is not at all clear how the Legislative Reference Bureau could claim to have the authority to refuse to publish approved regulations,” GASP senior attorney John Baillie said. Consequently, the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection Patrick McDonnell filed an action last week in the Commonwealth Court on behalf of the Wolf Administration to compel the Legislative Reference Bureau to publish the regulations. We will continue to provide updates as this litigation progresses.

GASP just last week called on ACHD to make the documents public so that residents could see for themselves how the polluters in their neighborhoods plan to deal reduce particulate matter emissions during short-term air pollution events. “We want to thank Allegheny County Health Department for making these plans available for public consumption,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “Transparency is paramount when it comes to accountability.” Here’s what ACHD tweeted last night: UPDATE: The plans submitted to the Health Department by sources that are subject to the Mon Valley Episode Rule are now online: https://t.co/V2w8dNPlHo https://t.co/IsOgimJW6m — Allegheny County Health Department (@HealthAllegheny) February 7, 2022 GASP staff is currently reviewing the documents. For those who need a little bit of background info: The Mon Valley Episode Rule, an addition to the County Air Pollution Control Regulations, was signed into law in September 2021 by Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald to develop and implement a system to respond to weather-related inversions in the Mon Valley, which can result in episodes of high levels of particulate matter pollution (PM2.5). Under the rule, ACHD monitors pollution forecasts for conditions that could lead to an episode. When conditions are likely to exceed acceptable levels for the Mon Valley, sources are required to follow approved mitigation plans to reduce their emissions. An Air Pollution Watch is issued when weather conditions are forecast to cause a high concentration of particulates in the Mon Valley, and an Air Pollution Warning is issued when the exceedance occurs and is expected to continue for 24 hours. The rule applies to certain sources within or near the following municipalities: Braddock, Braddock Hills, Chalfant, Clairton, Dravosburg, Duquesne, East McKeesport, East Pittsburgh, Elizabeth Borough, Elizabeth Township, Forest Hills, Forward, Glassport, Jefferson Hills, Liberty, Lincoln, McKeesport, Munhall, North Braddock, North Versailles, Port Vue, Rankin, Swissvale, Turtle Creek, Versailles, Wall, West Elizabeth, West Mifflin, White Oak, Wilkins, Wilmerding, and Whitaker. Notifications and alerts will be sent out using Allegheny Alerts. To sign up, go here. #airpollution #MonValleyAirPollution #USSteel #MonValleyWarning #MonValleyWatch #AlleghenyCounty #alleghenycountyairquality #AlleghenyCountyHealthDepartment #ACHD #ClairtonCokeWorks #MonValleyAirPollutionEpisodeRule #airquality