New dashboard tracks hydrogen sulfide in the Mon Valley
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Allegheny County Health Department launched a new tool to help people stay informed about a certain smelly gas in the air.
What's that smell? If you've ever gotten a whiff of a rotten eggs' odor in the Mon Valley, you probably know it's hydrogen sulfide and that it's been a concern for a long time.
The Allegheny County Health Department just made it easier to understand the colorless gas with a new online dashboard on its website.
"We want to make sure it's an easily accessible location where people could go and see all the information on hydrogen sulfide all in one place and really help them understand what's happening when they identify that issue," said Patrick Dowd, the acting director of the Allegheny County Health Department.
He said the most common sources of H2S are industrial processes. The closest industrial plant to the Liberty monitor is U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works.
Back in October, Patrick Campbell, executive director of Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), told KDKA he wanted more communication from the county health department about the smelly stench.
This week, Campbell said he was encouraged by the health department's new dashboard.
"We think it's a good community outreach and a good resource for residents living in the Mon Valley who have to suffer from this stench, from waking up in the middle of the night, from having to grab their inhalers, from having burning noses, from this smell. So we think it's a good way for residents to be able to see hydrogen sulfide levels and be able to more quickly take steps to mitigate those health impacts," said Campbell.
Pennsylvania is one of a few states with a hydrogen sulfide regulation.
Last March, the Allegheny County Health Department issued a penalty of more than $1.8 million to the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke plant for 153 hydrogen sulfide hourly exceedances from January 2020 through March 2022.
Dowd said not only does this online dashboard provide more information for residents, but it also helps the health department do its enforcement work.
"We've been improving air quality obviously for the last 10 years, particularly we've seen dramatic improvements in air quality in Allegheny County, and we continue in that effort. There's a lot more work to do. This is one of the steps we wanted to take," Dowd said.
He said so far in 2023, the dashboard shows no hydrogen sulfide exceedances of the hours standard, but it does show about seven exceedances of the 24-hour standard.
This new resource is a breath of fresh air for groups like GASP.
"We want to see this level of continued transparency, that would be a first step in both hydrogen sulfide enforcement as well as every other aspect of ACHD's operations. We're grateful for this level of transparency but we want to see that continue that way they can rebuild public trust in what they're doing and that's a good thing," Campbell said.
Find the dashboard and more information about hydrogen sulfide and the health department's studies here.