pa1778data.pdf

U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 43)
equipment at the Duquesne Works created an atmosphere which
provoked much conflict between corporate officials, county
enforcement agencies, and environmental activists in the years
succeeding the 1949 county-wide ordinance. The resolution of one
such conflict, a controversy over the performance of air quality
control equipment at the mill's electric furnace plant in the
early 1970s, demonstrated the creative ways in which a
public/private coalition could work together to solve common
community problems.
The controversy began in 1961 when the installation of an
air cleaning system at the recently expanded electric furnace
plant proved far too small for the task at hand. As a result,
the plant emitted five to six times the amount of air pollution
permitted by county law in 197 0. This violation prompted local
environmental organizations like the Group Against Smog and
Pollution (GASP) to call public attention to the problem. After
a careful study of conditions at the Duquesne Works, the
Allegheny County Air Pollution Control Bureau ordered U.S. Steel
to comply with the county's air pollution control law by December
31, 1970. In response, corporate officials requested an
indefinite variance, claiming that there was no known practical
method for controlling electric furnace smoke and particulate
emission. This caused an uproar as representatives from GASP
charged that the corporation had been stalling for years on
serious anti-pollution measures at the Duquesne Works.
Finally, after several months of negotiation, the bureau's
appeal board granted a variance until July, 1971, when the
company agreed to install an extensive smoke evacuation system at
the electric furnace plant. In addition, the county agreed to
finance the construction of the new air pollution control system
with a $ 5 million loan through its Industrial Development
Authority. The money was raised in the form of bonds which were
sold by the county to a private securities firm. The firm, in
turn, sold the bonds to individual investors under an arrangement
whereby U.S. Steel paid off the principle and interest on the
bonds through the payment of rental fees over a fifteen-year
period. 56
The successful examples, described above, of public/private
efforts to enhance Allegheny County's air quality in the post-war
period ultimately provided a model for labor and community
activists to make a last ditch effort to reopen the Duquesne
Works after U.S. Steel permanently shut it down in the fall of
1984. This effort had actually begun in 1983 when USWA Local
56 The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 2 9, 30, September 2,
November 16, 1970, March 18, 1971, and January 14, 1972.