Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP)

Environmental Watchdog and Legal Work (included as both Programs 1 and 2): GASP's advocacy and legal work emphasizes actively participating in decision-making by educating and organizing the public, informing government officials of the environmental ramifications of their decisions that could have adverse environmental and human health consequences. In addition to numerous comments submitted by GASP, here are some specific watchdog activities we conducted: 1) We advocated for the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) to strengthen its coke oven regulations to make them as protective of public health as possible including addressing hydrogen sulfide exceedances. The new regulations were approved, however, hydrogen sulfide remains a serious quality of life issue for residents of the Mon Valley. GASP continues to advocate for the ACHD to address the issue. 2) The new Mon Valley Air Pollution Episode Regulation was passed by Allegheny County Council as an effort to lower fine particulate matter during inversions. GASP pressured the county to pass this regulation. GASP has closely monitored implementation of the regulation and advocated to the ACHD to more effectively implement the rule and communicate to the public.

Educational Programs: Education about how air pollution can adversely effect health and quality of life is key to engaging the public on air pollution mitigation efforts. Educational efforts became more challenging with the Covid-19 pandemic. Some examples of GASP's educational work follow: 1) Virtual "Making the Connection" events have delivered invaluable information to individuals seeking to understand the connections between outdoor air quality and indoor air quality home hazards, air quality and food waste, and air quality and mental health.This year GASP featured Making the Connection events on the impacts of polllution to mental health and lessons learned from the Denora Smog disaster. 2) GASP developed Air Quality Kits to educate students and adults about air quality's effects on human health and how air quality is measured. These kits have been loaned to school classrooms, libraries, scout troops and others to educate a total of 1,176 students 476 adults. 3) GASP partnered with another environmental non-profit in Birmingham, Alabama to bring the Fresh Voices program to students in 9th through 11th grades. Here, students learned how to organize and deliver campaigns, interact with elected officials, and understand basic air quality principles. This program will continue to develop the next generation of air quality advocates in our regions.

3) Our Air Permits Clearinghouse has become an essential tool for organizations working on air quality in the region. We continually update the Clearinghouse and recently overhauled the associated maps. Additionally, we developed an instructional video about how to use the Clearinghouse. To make tracking and record keeping easier for residents and partner organizations, we embed the link to the permit for each facility in the Clearing House to ensure our partners can find the most current information.