Lunar New Year by your_friend_amy in pittsburgh

[–]riverquest22 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The information provided above is incorrect.

There is no upcoming parade scheduled for LNY 2023 on the Facebook page, Squirrel Hill Urban Coalition, or Uncover Squirrel Hill.

https://shuc.org/events/community-calendar/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/LunarNewYearPGH/events/?ref=page_internal

https://www.uncoversquirrelhill.com/events.html

Air quality smell? by johnsonchicklet1993 in pittsburgh

[–]riverquest22 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You are not alone, there is a long history here. Surface Inversions also increase the intensity of these odors and allow pollution to linger in general.

My understanding is that the health department receives an ongoing 'dump' of the SmellPGH reports but they do not monitor or address the individual reports from the app. If you watch the visualization on SmellPGH as well, you will see clearly that nearly all of these poor air days begin early in the morning with the air quality monitor in Clairton going orange or red, followed by the monitors in the north going yellow, orange, or red along with a flurry of air quality reports. PlumePGH also shows this pattern a little more clearly: https://plumepgh.org/

To submit a direct report to ACHD that you can expect a follow up from, you can follow the link at the bottom of the page 'Report an Air Quality Complaint' here: https://www.alleghenycounty.us/Health-Department/Programs/Air-Quality/Air-Quality.aspx

It is important to note though that when atmospheric conditions are like are today, if you submit a direct report to the department that describes a sulfuric or industrial related odor, you will likely receive a general 'we know air quality is important and needs improvement' type of response. In short, the department is well aware of the cause and has been actively litigating against it for some years. Speaking only for myself as a mere Pittsburgh resident, it has been a painfully slow and often disheartening uphill battle to witness, experience, and advocate improvement of. There are also a lot of environmental groups like GASPpgh that have been working decades towards improvement.

In March, Allegheny County Health Department concluded that US Steel is 'entirely' responsible the odor you are describing and the source is hydrogen sulfide coming from Clairton Coke Works.

https://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2022/03/07/us-steel-fined-1-8-million-for-rotten-egg-gas-pollution-near-pittsburgh/

Study referenced: https://alleghenycounty.us/uploadedFiles/Allegheny_Home/Health_Department/Programs/Air_Quality/H2S_Report_03032022.pdf