Please join Pittsburgh UNITED, GASP, the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action for a press conference on Tuesday morning, June 1st outside of Pittsburgh City Council chambers.

City Councilman Bill Peduto will introduce the Pittsburgh Clean Air, Clean Water bills that day in city council.

9:30 am, Tuesday, June 1st
City County Building, 5th Floor
414 Grant St, Downtown, Pittsburgh 15219

This pro-environment legislation is part of the Pittsburgh UNITED Economic Development Reform campaign. Since last Fall, the Pittsburgh UNITED coalition and it’s community allies have been working closely with Pittsburgh City Council to add increased accountability to publicly-subsidized economic development. In February the Prevailing Wage portion of the reform package was adopted by Council.

If you live in Pittsburgh, and cannot attend the June 1 press conference, please contact your Council Member and urge than to vote for the Stormwater Runoff and Diesel Emission legislation.  (See details below.)

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.

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 mil-lion. 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.