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Wednesday, March 06, 2002

By Rick Nowlin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

On first glance, it looks like a bucket of floor wax. But to people in the Ohio Valley who consider themselves victims of air pollution, it offers the proof they need.

With the smoky plants of Neville Island in the background, Clean Water Action held a press conference Thursday behind Metro Motors in Avalon. They were there to introduce the newest weapon in their fight against air pollution.

Kennedy resident Colleen Willison of the Neville Island Good Neighbor Committee demonstrated the air-sampling device.

The device has a deflated, two-liter plastic bag inside a plastic drum. A portable vacuum cleaner is used to suck air out of the drum, causing the bag to inflate. As the bag inflates, it draws in air -- and pollutants, if they exist -- from the outside. The bag is then sealed and shipped off for analysis.

Clean Water Action, a citizen's group, is encouraging use of the buckets as a supplement to the Allegheny County Health Department's own air sampling, which the environmental group believes is insufficient.

"They don't have enough inspectors, and they don't have the equipment, either," said Cindy Tuite of Bellevue, a member of the Neville Island Neighbors, a group formed by Clean Water Action specifically to curb pollution from Neville Island.

At the press conference, both groups demanded that the health department stop permitting increased air pollution from Neville Island industries, and called on Allegheny County Council to pass a law keeping the industries from emitting more pollutants.

"It isn't just the one plant they're permitting, it's all of them" said Myron Arnowitt,Western Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action.

A report from Clean Water Action said the group tested for 100 different pollutants over the past year and found 51, including 45 organic compounds and six "heavy metals," such as lead, nickel and arsenic. Several were in concentrations that exceeded cancer-causing standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The issue of pollution drifting across the river is, of course, not new. Residents of the Ohio Valley have complained for years about emissions from Neville Island industrial plants.

All the speakers criticized the health department for not doing enough to lower the rates of air pollution. "They need to be out here taking samples," Arnowitt said.

"There are days when the odor is so bad I immediately get a headache," said Janet Strahosky of Avalon. "I'm talking about the stuff you can taste."

Guillermo Cole, spokesman for the health department, said he would not comment until he had an opportunity to analyze Clean Water's data, which it received last week. "Our air monitoring program meets EPA requirements," Cole said. "Where and what we monitor is consistent with EPA criteria."

Despite the unhappiness over Neville Island, Clean Water Action did hail another piece of news. Schaffner Industries of Emsworth has decided against a new manufacturing process that local residents believed would have resulted in more pollution.

The health department last April had given the company an air pollution permit to change its manufacturing process for buffing wheels; it was going to use chemical solvents rather than water. The pilot project would have required the company to build a 40-foot stack to vent the resulting fumes.

Jay Schaffner, president of Schaffner Industries, said that pilot project "just didn't work out." He declined further comment.