EPA HEARINGS- Pittsburgh, PA 7/31/2014 11:20 a.m. Federal Bldg., Rm 1310 

Barbara Lee Pace 44 Courtney Street Pittsburgh, PA 15202 

barbleepace@gmail.com 

I value your efforts to conduct these hearings specifically in these regions where a 

lot of the pollution is being generated that is effecting everybody's health. Not 

just in these United States- but globally. I have tried to research and discover 

exactly what the differences are between your peers at the Environmental 

Protection Agency, Department of Environmental Protection, and our Allegheny 

County Department of Health. There appears to be so many over lapping 

responsibilities and lack of accountability. Our "Clean Water Action" committee 

members have repeatedly questioned all the aforementioned agencies asking 

who can accomplish enforcements to make all of our air, water and land free of 

carcinogens. 

I am the daughter, sister, niece of local ironworkers. My father and brother 

worked on erecting the power plant in Beaver County. My efforts to obtain a 

clean environment have caused me to take verbal abuse from those, who do not 

truly understand the long term costs on our health. Our group was formerly 

called "Neville Island Good Neighbor". We are in the process of finding and 

changing our name to represent more accurately -who and what we are about. 

Shenango Chemical resides on Neville Island. They are owned and operated by 

DTE based in Detroit. Our committee believes that Shenango has blankly ignored 

the clean air guidelines and would rather pay the fines than operate under the 

letter of the law. A lot of recent research has discovered- even the laws we 

currently have passed are not enforced or even strong enough as currently 

written -to reach the goals of good health for the entire planet. 

Most of our energies as "Clean Water" members (formerly called "Neville Island 

Good Neighbors" were spent trying to negotiate less pollution being emitted from 

Shenangos' smoke stacks on Neville Island. They did a very good job of courting 

us for close to two years. They fed us, met with us regularly- but the 

improvements were not coming along at the pace we were desiring. They spent 

thousands of dollars flying in representatives from Texas and Detroit. Monies 

that should have been spent on their quench towers. As their personnel kept 

changing over the two years, we found it of interest that none of the plant 
managers were living in the vicinity of their place of employment. Often they had 

their families residing in adjoining counties of Allegheny. We finally refused to be 

used as pawns anymore and no longer are meeting with Shenango. They proved 

NOT to be "good neighbors!" 

Sadly, even our meetings with our local Allegheny County Health Department felt 

like our concerns were not being met. When large community meetings were set 

up many of the residences left angry and frustrated. Their comments were 1) "we 

didn't need slide presentations on how a coke plant works" ... 2) "If we break the 

law while driving- we Jose our driver's license- why is Shenango still paying fines 

and there is no accountability for foul actions"? 

Must we have a "Three Mile Island" catastrophe, a "Love Canal" disaster, to 

warrant enough publicity to get the agencies that have "Protection" and "Health" 

in their given names -to see the results we can all live with? Will big industry 

seeking profits at the expense of our health- ALWAYS have more power over 

you and our elected politicians thwarting all our efforts? 

What can we little people do to effectively produce changes in our environment? 

We write letters, we meet with politicians, we attend hearings, we vote. What 

will you do with all these comments from these various cities you have been 

listening too? Possibly, some of you can remember when Pete Seeger sang some 

of the music Woodie Guthrie composed. "Pittsburgh is a Smoky Old Town" and 

"This Land is Our Land". We might not have dark skies in our afternoons as we 

did in the 40's/SO's; but these invisible cancer causing pollutants are just as 

compromising to our existence. 

THANK YOU for listening. Please care enough to do your best to make changes 

for the current and future health of us all!