Pittsburgh, America's "Steel City," snagged a second designation — albeit a negative one — this week when, for the first time, the American Lung Association designated it the most air-polluted U.S. city.
"Everyone has someone in their family whose health is threatened by the pollution we talk about in this report. Every day we're learning more about these dangers," said Bernadette Toomey, American Lung Association president and CEO. "One hundred twenty five million Americans live in areas that have unhealthy levels of air pollution. … Americans are still being denied the protection they deserve under the Clean Air Act."
The American Lung Association analyzed data from more than 700 counties from 2004 to 2006 from local air quality sensors. It did not take into account the changes to the Clean Air Act passed by Congress in March. According to the report, two out of five Americans live in areas that have unhealthful levels of some type of air pollution — either ozone or particle pollution.
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Weather/story?id=4758772&page=1
Unfortunately it’s another reason so many new factories and building are built on new sites, instead on one the thousands of unused factories or sites in the Midwest, it’s because the cost of clean up.
It’s easier to pave over farm land in Wood County, than it is to clean up some moonscaped field in North Toledo.
We need to hold the companies responsible to clean up the old sites when they leave or close down. Look at the old Jeep plant. It’s in a great industrial location, but it’s a toxic waste dump. Chrysler should be responsible for fixing the site. Instead it will just sit unused, leaking god knows what into the near by environment.
Why would the seller of the property not clean it up, kinda thought it would have been required.
But then;
"Urban Development in Ohio
The mission of the Office of Urban Development (OUD) is to assist communities in creating wealth from personal, business and community successes. OUD works to identify the resources and financing necessary to enhance the economic viability of local communities. The Office strives to improve the economic climate in Ohio's older communities by encouraging new investment, innovative land use, and job retention and/or creation.
The Clean Ohio Revitalization and Clean Ohio Assistance Funds are a portion of the $400 million Clean Ohio Fund approved by Ohio voters in November 2000. Voters gave the state the ability to issue $200 million for brownfield redevelopment activities and $200 million for preservation of green space. The Ohio Department of Development, through its Office of Urban Development, is implementing the brownfield portion of the bond in consultation with the Ohio Environmental Protection Age"
http://www.odod.state.oh.us/ud/