Introduction, Pittsburgh Clean Water, Clean Air Legislation

Event When & Where

When: 

1 Jun 2010 - 9:30am - 10:00am

Where: 

Pittsburgh City-County Building, 5th Floor

Join Pittsburgh UNITED, GASP, Clean Water Action, and the Sierra Club for the introduction of the
Pittsburgh Clean Water, Clean Air Legislation

Councilman Bill Peduto, lead sponsor of the legislation, will introduce two bills, one related to storm water run-off in major economic development projects and one related to reducing diesel emissions during construction of major projects on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010.

The Issues:
Reducing Diesel Emissions
Diesel emissions harm our health, our environment and our
economy. Publicly-funded development should be a partner in protecting our health and environment.

• Diesel soot cancer risk in Pittsburgh area is 408 times greater than EPA’s acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million. Our risk is 1 in 2,449
• Pittsburgh area workers projected to miss 13,558 days of work in 2010 because of unnecessary exposure to diesel fine particles
• Kids’ emergency room visits for asthma-like symptoms 400% higher in Pittsburgh than other cities
• Black carbon, emitted by diesels, is one of the largest contributing pollutants to global warming

The Clean Air bill will require that contracts for publicly-funded development in the City of Pittsburgh must ensure that all diesel vehicles on site to have the Best Available Die-sel Control Technology installed and that Ultra low sulfur diesel fuel is used by construction vehicles.

Mitigating Storm Water Run-off
During heavy rainstorms, storm water run-off forces un-treated sewage into our rivers. Publicly funded development should lead the way in innovative techniques to control and drastically reduce this problem.

• During nearly two thirds of the days of our city’s boat-ing season, the water is not safe to touch.
• The current estimate for ALCOSAN’s portion of the EPA mandated repairs to its system is estimated to be from $3 billion to as much as $20 billion.
• Uncontrolled storm water runoff washes vehicle exhaust products, oil, grease, gasoline, road deicers, and carcino-genic topping compounds for asphalt and concrete down our storm water sewers into our rivers
• Most of us get our drinking water from the three rivers

The Clean Water bill will require developments that receive our tax dollars to drastically reduce their storm water run-off.

Attached files: 

6-1-10CleanWaterAirPressConf.pdf