Air quality updates to be posted
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
Until the Clairton Coke Works plant is running under normal operations again, the Allegheny County Health Department will notify Mon Valley residents at 3 p.m. each day via Facebook and the ACHD website as to whether there have been any federal sulfur dioxide exceedances from the plant.
Updates will be published to bit.ly/AQAlertMonValley. If there are any exceedances of the federal SO2 standard, updates may be posted more often.
Many Mon Valley residents were left wondering this week why they weren’t informed sooner about clean air risks caused by a Christmas Eve fire at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works.
An Allegheny County Health Department recommendation released Wednesday morning stated that Valley residents — especially those with asthma, bronchitis or emphysema, as well as children and the elderly — should limit outdoor activities until further notice because the fire damaged two gas dispatcher stations at the plant and has resulted in several exceedances of the federal standards for hourly SO2 (sulfur dioxide) emissions.
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