Tell ACHD: We need cleaner air—not dirtier

Residents of Brackenridge and across Allegheny County have a right to clean air. The latest draft permit for ATI’s Brackenridge steel plant fails to guarantee that right. The new draft permit allows the ATI plant to increase its pollution limits—some of which it has failed to meet for over a decade and which cannot lawfully be raised to the proposed levels.

The new draft allows the facility to emit three times more smog-forming pollution than the plant typically reports.  Allegheny County already has an “F” grade from the American Lung Association on air quality for soot and smog pollution, which endanger asthmatics, children, the elderly, and those who work and play outdoors. We need to improve our air quality—not give polluters free reign to make it worse.

This permit would make it impossible to tell how much the plant is actually polluting by not adequately requiring ATI to monitor or report emissions.

We strongly urge the ACHD to revise ATI’s operating permit to be more protective of public health and to comply with the law.

Sincerely,