This Giving Tuesday, we want to be upfront with the reality of air quality advocacy: It remains largely a David vs. Goliath endeavor. On one side, you have the multi-million dollar and sometimes even multi-billion-dollar companies with their slick corporate attorneys and exorbitant public relations budgets.
On the other side, you have residents and groups like GASP.
That’s not us being all doom and gloom - we know who we are: A watchdog organization that’s always thrived in the underdog role. Despite our small team and modest budget, your support over the years has allowed us to wield outsized influence to help improve regional air quality and hold both polluters and regulators accountable.
And we want to keep on doing what we do best. We know there are SO MANY outstanding local nonprofit organizations seeking your support. So we’re serving up six reasons we think you should consider supporting the gang here at GASP:
Our work gets action + answers. After years of demanding information and action and thousands of odor complaints, ACHD in March revealed the source of sky-high hydrogen sulfide concentrations at its Liberty air quality monitor that regularly exceeded Pennsylvania’s regulatory standard and impacted residents’ health and quality of life: U.S. Steel’s coking operations in Clairton. In March, the department published a comprehensive air quality study detailing its research and issued a $1.8 million enforcement action against the Mon Valley steelmaker.
We help equip residents with the knowledge they need to speak out about air quality issues. We know air quality issues are complex and the public comment process can be confusing. That’s why we take great care to break down complex issues into plain language in our watchdog blogs. This year, hundreds of residents used our online forms to submit comments on local issues like the proposed consent decree calling for extensive improvements to U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson facility to broader issues like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
We launched a new, more user-friendly website. We streamlined our site and added new bells and whistles to allow us to better communicate action alerts, events, and news.
We’re hosting air quality “boot camps” for municipal officials so they can better serve YOU. Thanks to a grant from the Pennsylvania DEP, we’ve crafted an educational primer that addresses all things air quality. And we’re taking it on the road to air quality “boot camps” for municipal officials in Allegheny and surrounding counties.
The EPA awarded us funding to expand local citizen air quality monitoring and fill in data gaps. GASP is teaming up with six fellow environmental groups to help solve that environmental justice issue locally thanks to a nearly $500,000 EPA grant. The project is expected to enhance ambient air quality monitoring in communities that are underserved, historically marginalized, and overburdened by pollution. We can’t wait to get started.
You can depend on us. We care 24/7. And we hope we prove that to you every single day. From our daily social media posts and blogs to our weekly newsletter, you can depend on GASP to be among the first to tell you about everything from alerts regarding periods of abysmal air quality to opportunities to speak out on important permits and regulations.
If you are able to make a donation, please know that we are so appreciative. As always, those who would like to make a donation through the Give Big Pittsburgh platform can do so here you can also feel free to make a donation on our website. If you have questions, our member services manager Kathy Lawson can give you a hand, just email her at kathy@gasp-pgh.org to set up a time.
We can’t say it enough: Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU. Supporters like you have helped GASP to be here for the long haul. With your help, we’re looking forward to making even more strides for clean air in 2023.
Yours for Clean Air,
The GASP Gang