Visualizing Industrial Impact in Allegheny County

Collaboration with Data Science Capstone Students at the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information, Spring 2025

Air pollution has long been one of our area’s most pressing environmental and public health issues - thanks largely to industrial polluters like the U.S. Steel and other Title V facilities in Allegheny County.

Recently, GASP partnered with a few students from the University of Pittsburgh School of Computing and Information on a data analytics project that looked at air quality violations from the polluting facilities over the past five years.

Our student partners analyzed air quality violations from various U.S. Steel locations to learn the nature of the violations and how much U.S. Steel has been fined as a result.

But first, a little necessary background information…

What is Coke and How is it Used in Steelmaking?

Coke is a processed form of coal used in several industrial processes, but especially in iron ore smelting. To make coke, coal is heated to temperatures around 2100°F and baked in a coke oven for 15-30 hours. Several coke ovens grouped together are called a coke battery.

During the coking process, impurities are released from the coal which creates a refined coke product.

Many of the impurities released are toxic chemicals. Some facilities have separate processing procedures that collect these chemical impurities and transform them into useful byproducts which can be sold or used during other manufacturing processes.

In other cases, certain impurities are flared, or burned, to transform them into less toxic substances.

A couple notes about this dashboard:

Some of the violations only stated monthly/daily fines, and as a result we were not able to figure out the total fine amount for those violations. Our dashboard simply lists the monthly/daily fines for those violations, which occurred in Edgar Thomson, TMS International, and Magnus Products.
TMS International and Magnus Products have the same address, so only one of these locations are showing up in the bubble map. However, their individual violations are still showing up in the table and bar chart.

Violations

For this dashboard, we looked at violations issued against steel and coke facilities in southwestern Pennsylvania between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2024. They included U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works facilities:

The Clairton Coke Works
The Edgar Thomson Plant
Irvin Works
Magnus Products and TMS International (Edgar Thomson support facilities)

They also analyzed violations at:

ATI, which specializes in making products from alloys, steel and titanium
AKJ Clairton, which specializes in handling coke
Synthomer (formerly Eastman Chemical), a Jefferson Hills facility that produces hydrocarbon resins, metal adhesives and plastic components

The violations fell into these categories:

Permit Violations: These include late submissions of compliance certifications and invalid stack tests.
Exceedances of Emission Limits: Multiple instances of exceeding permitted limits for hazardous air pollutants like methanol and hydrogen sulfide (H2S).
Operational Failures: Uncontrolled pushes and failure to notify prior to demolition activities.
Reporting Failures: Late or missing required reports and certifications.

Violations Found in Data We Analyzed (By the Numbers)

Clairton Coke Works: 28 violations

ATI Flat Rolled: 7 violations

Edgar Thomson: 7 violations

Synthomer Jefferson Hills: 2 violations

AKJ Clairton: 1 violation

Conclusion

U.S. Steel has been fined millions of dollars for air quality violations in just the past five years in Allegheny County alone. Consider that U.S. Steel has been in operation locally for more than a century. So this is just a snapshot of the company’s overall history of air quality-related violations.

While U.S. Steel is the most prolific polluter in Allegheny County, it’s far from the only company to be fined for breaking air quality rules.

We hope this dashboard helps provide a better understanding of where those violations occurred and which operators have violated clean air rules and standards the most.

In order from left to right (all seniors): Jiri Palayekar (Majors: Information Science and Psychology), Abby Swan (Major: Data Science), Areej Mohsin (Major: Data Science), Dhwani Kanani (Major: Data Science), Ankita Raj (Major: Data Science), Luke Daniel (Majors: Data Science and Computer Science).