Pittsburgh Clean Water - Cutting Diesel Emissions

In 2006, Clean Water Action, Pittsburgh joined forces with the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) to reduce diesel emissions from all polluting sectors, including school buses, transit buses, trucks, waste haulers, construction equipment, locomotives, and marine vessels. That is one tall order! Since that time, we have had many successes.

Pittsburgh Healthy School Bus Fund

School buses emit diesel particulates from their tailpipes and studies show that this polluted air gets trapped inside the bus with our children. Diesel emissions can aggravate asthma, cause lung damage, and other respiratory problems. To protect our children, Clean Water Action and GASP campaigned to retrofit diesel school buses in the Pittsburgh School District. After several educational presentations and personal meetings, Bill Roenigk, Vice President of W.L. Roenigk, Inc. stepped up to the plate and agreed to retrofit 50 of his buses. This fund consists of a very generous $500,000 grant from the Heinz Endowments combined with a $100,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Building on that success, we approached the Pittsburgh Public Schools to ask them to require that all bus companies that drive for the District retrofit their buses. On May 27, 2009, the Pittsburgh School Board voted to include the following conditions in their current five-year contract:

• All Carriers will have one hundred percent (100%) of their diesel buses equipped with CCVs by the 2010/2011 school year. CCV's keep dangerous diesel emissions out of the cabin of the bus.
• All Carriers will have eighty-five percent (85%) of their buses equipped with DPFs by the end of school year 2013/14. DPF's reduce the tailpipe emissions of diesel particulates into the air by 90%.
• Buses equipped with DPF's can be used until age 12 while buses without DPF's must be retired after 10 years.
• Carriers who have a larger percentage of their buses fitted with DPF's will be given preference for afterschool activity, field trip, and mid-day runs

This victory was won through the enthusiastic efforts of numerous community members - young and old - that showed up at press events and testified before the School Board to express their personal concern about diesel emission exposure. Clean Water Action canvassers gathered hundreds of petitions which were presented to the School Board on the evening they voted.

For more information on the details and progress of the program

DEP Grant - City of Pittsburgh Waste Haulers

In 2008 Clean Water Action, along with GASP, partnered with city employees and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Air Management Association (MARAMA), to secure a grant of $167,200 from the DEP to the City of Pittsburgh to retrofit 13 garbage trucks. Now we've built on that success.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funding for the State Clean Diesel Grant Program provides funds to projects which focus on stimulating the American economy, preserving and/or creating jobs, and reducing diesel emissions. When the program was announced, Clean Water Action had a "shovel-ready" project already in mind: 33 of the remaining 53 waste-haulers in the City's fleet could be retrofitted. In conjunction with the Allegheny County Health Department's Air Quality Department staff and GASP, Clean Water Action reached out to the City personnel with whom we worked in 2008. They were extremely pleased to be considered as a beneficiary of stimulus money and leaped at the chance to work with us once again. Federal funds, funneled through the Pennsylvania DEP, in the amount of $433,100 were awarded to the Allegheny County Health Department to be used by City of Pittsburgh to retrofit 33 waste haulers.

Trash haulers are heavily used vehicles that operate many hours per day. This project will lower emissions of particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) in a densely populated area. Not only will residents of Pittsburgh be protected from unnecessary exposure to diesel emissions, the drivers themselves will be exposed much less to these dangerous substances.

National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program

In early spring 2009, EPA Region III, of which Southwestern Pennsylvania is a part, announced the availability of $3.1 million to be competitively bid for by the six states which constitute Region III: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The funds were specifically earmarked for diesel emissions reduction projects. Not to miss an opportunity to clean up the air in Allegheny County, Clean Water Action collaborated with the Group Against Smog and Pollution and the Air Quality Department of the Allegheny County Health Department to determine where best funds could be used to effectively reduce diesel emissions. After many hours of meetings, concentration, and discussion, 4 projects were selected for submission by the deadline of June 13, 2009.

Out of the $3.1 million available, Allegheny County was awarded $3,498,106 for four different diesel-reducing projects among five local and regional organizations. Funding comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: National Clean Diesel Funding Assistance Program. On August 13, 2009, a press conference was held announcing the projects:

• Port Authority of Allegheny County (PAT) will replace two buses with electric hybrid buses and repower nine buses
• CSX Transportation will repower one vintage switch locomotive to a two engine configuration with the latest in emission control technology
• Diamond Head Trucking and MultiServ Corporation are installing 35 diesel particulate filters on dump trucks operating in and around the U.S. Steel Corporation Mon Valley Works
• Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania is repowering, installing DPFs, and upgrading engines on 28 various pieces of construction equipment.

Through these four projects, an estimated 4.72 tons of fine particulate pollution will be removed from the air we breathe every year!

Clean Water Cleaning Up The Air In Allegheny County

More toxic chemicals are released in Allegheny County than in Beaver, Butler, Washington, and Westmoreland Counties combined! These chemicals jeopardize our environment and threaten our health. In the last few months, Pittsburgh has gotten failing grades for the quality of its air in five separate reports. The American Lung Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, USA Today, Carnegie Mellon University and an investigative report on WTAE all described serious problems with the air we breathe. Cities like Houston, Louisville, and Los Angeles have taken bold action to clean up the air - we need to do the same.

Clean Water Action and residents of the Mon Valley and Neville Island area have been working for three years to get the Air Toxic Guidelines (ATG) updated and strengthened. The Allegheny County Health Department uses this document to help them control future sources of pollution.

The current version was established in 1988, making it now over 20 years old. The Air Toxic Subcommittee which is comprised of representatives from industry, the environmental community, and the Air Quality Program, crafted and unanimously approved an updated version earlier this year. Despite the subcommittee's approval, the testimony of 15 residents, and resolutions from 6 municipalities the Board of Health voted the new version down at their July 2009 meeting.

Clean Water Action has started a campaign to urge County Executive Dan Onorato to address the serious problem of air quality in this region. Ultimately, we want County Executive Onorato to support updating the ATG or take some comprehensive action to improve our air. Contact Clean Water Action in Pittsburgh if you want to join the campaign.