A citizens group that collects air samples in communities around highly industrial Neville Island has found high levels of two cancer-causing compounds and is asking the Allegheny County Health Department to determine the sources and stop the emissions.
The two chemicals -- acrylonitrile and benzene -- are carcinogens that were detected in individual air samples taken in June and July by the "Bucket Brigade" of the Neville Island Good Neighbor Committee.
According to the county's emissions-release data, none of the industries on Neville Island emits acrylonitrile, a federally listed "hazardous air pollutant."
"We're not experts. We're ordinary citizens concerned with what it is we are breathing, our children are breathing and our parents are breathing," said Janet Strahosky, a committee member who collected one of the recent air samples.
Speaking at a news conference yesterday in Avalon, with the industrial skyline of Neville Island as a backdrop across the Ohio River, Strahosky said the group has been collecting air samples since March 2001 and its findings confirm that industrial pollutants are a problem.
"We knew something was wrong with our air when we could smell it and taste it," Strahosky said. "Now, through our sampling, we've confirmed that the air we are breathing is dangerous. If you live or work within a six-mile radius of Neville Island and downwind to the Point in Pittsburgh, you're at risk."
Myron Arnowitt, Western Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action, called on the county Health Department and the state Department of Environmental Protection to investigate the emissions of acrylonitrile and benzene.
"It's long past time for the Health Department to get out to Neville Island, take some [air] samples and stop companies from exposing us to these dangerous chemicals," Arnowitt said.
Bennie Fedorski, a Stowe commissioner, said his community, on the south shore of the Ohio River, regularly has its skies turn gray because of smokestack emissions from Neville Island industries, particularly Calgon Carbon, which cleans spent carbon filters by incinerating the waste they contain.
"We have a problem in Stowe every week with Calgon's smokestack pluming all over the township," Fedorski said. "I go to the police station and log it in, and then I go down to the plant and ask them to slow down the emissions. They turn the feeder screw and the problem goes away."
Although committee members suggested Calgon Carbon could be a source of the acrylonitrile emissions, Gail Gerono, a company spokeswoman, said officials there "are certain that compound did not come from our plant."
Cindy Tuite, another Good Neighbor Committee member, was surprised that acrylonitrile and benzene at levels that exceed health standards set by other states showed up in the "grab sample" she took over a 10-minute period in Avalon on the evening of July 17.
"I didn't think it was one of our bad nights. I couldn't even smell anything where I live in Bellevue," Tuite said. "Lord only knows what we're breathing in when the smells stick around for hours and hours."
Betsy Mallison, a DEP spokeswoman, said that based on the collected data, "additional study seems warranted." She said the state would provide assistance if asked.
Pennsylvania and Allegheny County have no standards for air emissions of those chemicals, said Guillermo Cole, a Health Department spokesman. He said the county stopped monitoring benzene levels in the mid-1990s when levels declined significantly.
"We don't have limitations for acrylonitrile, so it wouldn't be illegal to emit it," Cole said. "But the question is at what level would the county be concerned?
"It's interesting, particularly the acrylonitrile," he said, "because we don't have any known sources in the area."
Don Hopey can be reached at dhopey@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983.
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