Dear Fellow Breathers,
We've got more work to do. Last night, Allegheny County Council remanded the proposal to fully fund our Air Quality Program back to the Health and Human Services Committee for further discussion.
That punt, which you can read about here, came after myriad members of the public urged council to vote YES on the proposal.
GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell was among those who submitted addressed council, asking members to greenlight the revised permit fee schedule.
Here are his full comments:
Good afternoon. My name is Patrick Campbell, I am the executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), a nonprofit organization working to improve our regional air quality since 1969.
Today, I am here to urge you to vote yes on Allegheny County Health Department’s Air Quality permit fee schedule expected to help buoy enforcement and compliance efforts.
It is important to note that the updated fee schedule was approved nearly unanimously by the Board of Health and was subject to a public comment period where it received robust support from residents, nonprofits, and elected officials like the Allegheny County Controller.
While there are emotional arguments to be made about the importance of equipping our Air Quality Program with the resources and staffing, the decision you are making tonight is straight-forward.
ACHD has been delegated the authority to enforce federal and state laws and regulations regarding air pollution controls in Allegheny County such as the Clean Air Act. And the Clean Air Act requires that ACHD have adequate funding and personnel to carry out its duties.
As demonstrated at myriad meetings by Deputy Director Geoff Rabinowitz, ACHD currently does not have adequate funding as evidenced by an anticipated $1.8 million budget shortfall.
The Clean Air Act is clear on who needs to pay. In fact, the law requires ACHD to charge Title V facilities fees that are sufficient to cover the cost of administering the program. And again, Mr. Rabinowitz explained in detail at several meetings how those fees are currently NOT sufficient to fund the program.
It’s also become evident that state and county funding streams are not sufficient to cover the costs of administering the non-Title V side of the air quality program. We believe it’s entirely appropriate - and common sense- for ACHD to charge the polluting facilities requiring the time and resources of our air quality program to actually pay for that time and those resources.
You’re likely going to hear plenty of balking from industry, which is fond of cherry-picking percentages they hope will alarm you enough to make a knee-jerk reaction and vote no on a proposal that has already been approved by the Board of Health and in the court of public opinion.
Let’s be clear: A no vote tonight is a vote against public health. It’s a vote against the dedicated men and women in the Air Quality Program who work to monitor our air and enforce our air pollution control laws.
Please know that a no vote tonight will be remembered by your constituents, who just this week have dealt with another abysmal bout of air quality, including four straight days of H2S exceedances as well as the year’s first exceedance of the sulfur dioxide standard.
Clearly, the Air Quality Program has work to do. Please vote YES and help them get that work done.
Stay tuned. Plans to engage council are underway. We'll keep you posted.