50 signatures reached
To: Allegheny County Health Department
TAKE ACTION! DEMAND INCREASE IN TITLE V OPERATING PERMITS COSTING TAXPAYERS NOTHING!
Two and one-half years ago we launched our first of 14 Grassroots Resident-led Town Halls, during which we educated hundreds of attendees about the dangers of the toxic air that we breathe.
The time has come to convert that knowledge into change-oriented action, but our region’s leadership needs to face reality in order to make that happen.
What more important action could there be than to increase the Title V Operating Permit fees costing taxpayers nothing? This would enable the county to more adequately fund the ACHD so that it could do its job of holding abusive polluters accountable and protecting the health of Allegheny County residents.
ACHD has recommended to Allegheny County Council and its Health and Human Services Subcommittee approval of the recommendation.
Sign this petition to urge the passage of the fee increase costing taxpayers nothing!
Why is this important?
As Allegheny County Council contemplates a vote on the proposed increased fees for Title 5 operating permits, some have argued that this would place an unfair burden on U.S. Steel, because of the recommended increase from $8,000 to $53,000 that the company would have to pay.
For a company that earned $2.14 Billion in 2023, that is a specious argument.
ACHD has been admonished by EPA for the huge backlog in such permitting, and the assessment of the fair cost for the staff work required to resolve this problem is long overdue.
Our once largest employer, U.S. Steel, is today a mere shell of itself. More importantly, the company has failed to maintain its ancient Mon Valley Works, at the same time that it has been investing $6 Billion in more modern facilities in Arkansas, a right-to-work state, leaving a vestige of their worst operations here, facilities that emit the toxic air that we are condemned to breathe.
Our region’s largest employers, our healthcare establishment and universities, are nonprofit organizations. Our region also boasts a major concentration of other nonprofits. None of them pay taxes.
Simultaneously, our economic base is threatened by downtown office building foreclosures, which are driving down real estate assessments in the post-pandemic, work-remotely world. Consequently, Allegheny County is facing major budget deficits.
The economic and demographic future of our region lies in promoting economic growth through the tax-paying tech businesses that are here. But we cannot grow that sector when more and more of their lifestyle-conscious workforce refuses to come to Allegheny County, one of the 1% worst places in the country for cancer, lung and heart diseases related to air pollution, with up to triple the rate of youth asthma.
The time is long overdue to face reality, promoting the changes that can free our region to grow economically and demographically.
A first step in this direction should be action taken by Allegheny County Council and its Health & Human Services committee to approve the fee increases that will allow ACHD to begin to increase its capacity to protect the health of all of our residents, while costing taxpayers nothing!
How it will be delivered
Email and social media.