Home >  Business

Repeat offenders targeted; would ban violators' expansions

Tuesday, August 21, 2001

By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Supporters of tougher Allegheny County air pollution standards call their plan a "common sense" approach that penalizes repeat violators.

A so-called "bad actor" provision is at the heart of proposed standards to be introduced Thursday to County Council. It would prevent companies from expanding or building plants if they have violated the terms of their air pollution permits within the preceding 12 months.

Currently, the Allegheny County Health Department can refuse to issue a new air pollution permit based on past violations. But the county also has discretion to grant new permits in such cases.

That angers people who live near the plants and believe the companies are not held accountable for violations, said Myron Arnowitt, Western Pennsylvania director of Clean Water Action, which helped to write the new standards.

Residents "have had enough and they really want [violators] to move into compliance," Arnowitt said at a news conference yesterday.

The bad actor provision would affect relatively few companies. As of June, when the proposed upgrades were first announced, there were 473 facilities with county air pollution permits and only 11 had been cited in the previous 12 months.

The bill, sponsored by council members Dave Fawcett, R-Oakmont, Rich Fitzgerald, D-Squirrel Hill, and Ron Francis, R-Ben Avon, has two other main provisions.

It would require the Health Department to consider the cumulative impact of nearby air pollution sources when deciding whether to issue or deny a permit.

And it would force the department to conduct a "pollution prevention analysis" as part of a permit application review. That would involve studying whether a company could use less hazardous materials, change its manufacturing processes or make other adjustments to reduce pollution.

Health Department officials have questioned the proposed rules on many fronts. They say only the federal government can adopt such anti-pollution rules, that they could drive industrial businesses into other counties and they infringe on work that should be done by the Health Department.

"Health matters are for the Health Department. County Council seems to be injecting itself into this debate," said Roger Westman, the department's manager of air quality operations.

Arnowitt said it is proper for council to legislate on health issues, and the county is free to change air pollution laws as long as they are not weaker than federal or state regulations.

All three councilmen were quick to say the rules should not hurt business but rather promote the majority of businesses that follow pollution standards and provide a quality of life in the county that is good for economic development.

"The new paradigm in economic development is you attract tech workers and other people in high-tech industries by having a safe and clean environment," said Francis, who represents communities surrounding Neville Island, which accounts for 25 percent of the air pollution in the county.

"If you attract those kind of knowledge workers and technology workers, then you also attract businesses that seek to employ them," he said. "I believe that environmental quality and economic development go hand in hand."