Apr 22, 2019 3 min read

DONORA – In late October 1948 the air in Donora was heavily clouded with pollution to the point where it was impossible for people to see but for a few inches beyond their faces.

The air is much cleaner now that the steel and zinc mills have disappeared from this fog-prone landscape, which will be the focal point of a hike next month through the borough focusing on clean air and its industrial history-making disaster.

“It impacts us even today,” said Chelsea Hilty, education and events coordinator for Group Against Smog and Pollution-Pittsburgh. “We still have really bad air quality in the area.”

The 2-mile Donora hike falls under GASP’s Athletes United for Healthy Air campaign that teaches people about air quality and how athletes can protect themselves while outdoors, Hilty said.

Athletes are especially vulnerable to pollution because they breath in more air while performing such exercises as jogging.

GASP will bring air quality monitors to the May 18 hike through Donora, where more than 20 people died over a Halloween weekend in 1948 when heavy air trapped smokestack pollutants in the Mon Valley area. The U.S. government attributed the causes of the disaster to many contributors, but the U.S. Steel zinc works has taken most of the blame over the years for the deadly air.

The Donora Smog also was the catalyst for the nation’s first clean-air laws.

Pittsburgh’s steel history is still cited in public policies, Hilty said.

U.S. Steel shut down the zinc mill in the 1950s and had turned off the steel mill’s blast furnaces by 1960.

“They basically closed the door and left,” said Mark Pawelec, a member of the Donora Historical Society.

About 30 people are expected to participate in the event, following a trail through what is now an industrial park that uses some of the old mill buildings. The group will make a right turn at Sixth Street and walk a few short blocks to the historical society’s Donora Smog Museum.

The museum has attracted visitors from around the globe as interest remains strong to this day about the smog disaster.

The society has a large collection of old photographs showing the landscape before the zinc mill took root and how the pollution stripped most of the vegetation from the surrounding hillsides. The museum also has many rare photographs of the mills in operation.

Venture Outdoors of Pittsburgh also is a partner in the hike. For more information, visit http://www.ventureoutdoors.org/events/3356

There were only three remaining tickets to be sold on Friday.