Category: News || By Submitted Report

County Executive Rich Fitzgerald will ask Allegheny County Council to consider new air pollution rules, including ones that will affect U.S. Steel's Clairton Plant.

The facility, which produces coke and byproduct chemicals by heating the impurities out of coal, is blamed for many of the "air quality alerts" during hot, hazy days in the Mon-Yough area.

Specifically, the changes would add a visible emissions standard for coke ovens and coke oven gas. A county spokeswoman said there are already federal requirements for coke oven operations, but the new rule would allow county inspectors to determine whether Clairton Plant was complying with those requirements.

Council will consider taking action at its meeting at 5 p.m. tomorrow (June 9) in the Gold Room of the Allegheny County Courthouse, downtown Pittsburgh. Meetings are open to the public.

Fitzgerald has also asked council to approve a new regulation on natural gas wells drilled in the so-called Marcellus shale formation. The new rule would require drilling companies to report to the county Health Department the initial construction of a well, drilling, hydraulic fracturing and flaring.

A county spokeswoman said the requirement will enable enforcement staff to properly enforce existing air quality regulations in the county.

Related air-pollution legislation proposed by Fitzgerald includes amending county Health Department Rules & Regulations to clarify and update language to conform to federal law and remove outdated procedures.

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In Other Business: Fitzgerald has asked council to re-appoint White Oak attorney James Dodaro to the county's Finance and Development Commission. A member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission for two decades, Dodaro is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the Duquesne University School of Law. He served as director of the Allegheny County Department of Development from 1979 to 1984 and as Allegheny County Solicitor from 1984 to 1992.