CMU cameras may help clear the air on pollution issues
People in their mid-40s or older who lived in the Pittsburgh region in the mid-1980s or earlier probably recall the steel mills and other industrial facilities that were prevalent in these parts. For better and worse, they were trademarks that inspired the moniker Steel City.
These facilities, usually in the Monongahela and Beaver valleys, belched a lot of smoke – smelly smoke. But they were productive and provided a lot of well-paying jobs, and for decades were generally accepted by the local populace. The extent of the health risks created by the pollution of air and water was not known for a long time, despite the ample evidence the Donora smog disaster of 1948 provided.
One Observer-Reporter staffer, who grew up in the East Hills, remembers attending an assembly at his high school stadium for the first Earth Day in April 1970. As one of a dozen or so students and faculty took turns at the podium, lamenting the perils of pollution, the staffer glanced at the horizon and saw the accustomed orange skies, courtesy of Braddock’s Edgar Thomson Works. It was quite a juxtaposition.
Much of that changed in the ’80s, as stricter pollution standards took effect and industrialists relocated their operations abroad to cut costs. Industrial companies that stayed produced in a cleaner fashion.
But not entirely clean, or aromatic. The Pittsburgh region’s skies are still far from pristine, and in an effort to document that, the CREATE Lab at Carnegie Mellon University is catching it on film, according to a recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The lab is using high-resolution Breathe Cam cameras to monitor visible air pollution around the clock at three U.S. Steel facilities in the Monongahela Valley: the Thomson Works, the coke works in Clairton and the Irvin facility in West Mifflin. The cameras are set up a half-mile to three miles from each site.
Randy Sargent, director of Breathe Cam, told the P-G the cameras were set up near the plants following complaints registered on the SmellPGH app, a CREATE Lab tool through which people can report instances of rank odors. The reports are shared with the Allegheny County Health Department, which regulates air quality. The health department keeps track of emissions at these facilities, but Sargent said his cameras can catch visible pollution that escapes in a short burst.
He explained: “Many of the smells being reported appear to emanate from the Mon Valley, based on the report locations, prevailing winds and prevalence of pollution-trapping temperature inversions in the river valley. We hope to get a better idea about what is happening by observing three of the valley’s largest pollution sources.”
Although using these cameras will not lead to a bona fide solution, and one cannot help but wonder how much nonvisible pollution is being emitted, anything that would further reduce the fouling of Mon Valley air is highly laudable. The efforts of CMU’s Career Lab are, literally, a breath of fresh air.