Breathe Project launches clean air initiative
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For more than 60 years, Pittsburghers, from industry kingpins to mayors to mothers pushing baby buggies, have moved the region toward cleaner, healthier air.
The Heinz Endowments is betting its considerable influence and $7 million they can do it again with the launch of the Breathe Project, a broad-based, multi-year campaign aimed at improving the quality of life in the Pittsburgh region by reducing its largely invisible but ultimately unhealthy air pollution.
"This is a collection of people and organizations with one goal: to help make our air quality better," Bobby Vagt, Heinz Endowments president, said Thursday at the project's kickoff event in front of an audience of 200 at the Children's Museum on the North Side.
Mr. Vagt said the Breathe Project has already identified a number of initiatives for investment, including adding $900,000 to a Clean Diesel Construction Equipment Retrofit Fund established by the Allegheny County Health Department to defray costs for small construction companies to comply with new emissions reduction regulations.
Other initiatives will include a $287,000 study to determine the feasibility of converting Port Authority buses to natural gas fuel; a $120,000 pilot project by Carnegie Mellon University in East Liberty that will develop a light signal system that aids traffic flow; a large scale planting program to add 20,000 trees to city streets in the next three years; an analysis of the economic benefits of air quality improvements; and a "Mayors Summit" meeting to gather information from other cities that have successfully reduced air pollution.
The diverse coalition includes individuals and nearly 40 industry, government, nonprofit and business organizations.
Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution, said she is optimistic about the success of the Breathe Project and noted that utility and industry smokestacks, vehicle tailpipes and shale gas development sites all produce pollution and all must play roles in reducing it.
"It's refreshing to see industry and local leadership recognize that Pittsburgh still has a significant air pollution problem," Ms. Filippini said. "The sources of air pollutants are plentiful and diverse and our solutions must be plentiful and diverse, and include voluntary initiatives as well as mandatory regulations."
Despite efforts to clean the soot from Pittsburgh's "Smoky City" image that began in the late 1940s and resulted in real, visible air quality improvements, the sum of the region's air pollution levels remain among the worst in the nation and are not improving as rapidly as they are elsewhere. As a result, the region's residents are at a much higher risk for a range of serious health problems related to air pollutants.
"The Heinz Endowments has presented us with an opportunity and many have come together to do something better," said James Rohr, chairman and chief executive officer of PNC Financial Services Group. "This is the right thing to do. We'll all be better off when we have better air and can breathe better."
Individuals can get more information on the Breathe Project or join the coalition by visiting www.breatheproject.org.
First Published October 28, 2011 12:00 am
