Public weighs in on pollution near Pittsburgh

• Emily Previti/PA Post
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  Emily is a reporter for WITF who’s been covering voting and elections since July 2019 as part of her former role with statehouse accountability news organization PA Post. She was the senior reporter for statewide public media collaboration Keystone Crossroads. Previously, she covered city hall for PennLive/The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.), was a watchdog and city hall reporter at The Press of Atlantic City and reported for the Northwest Herald. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
  
  See other articles by Emily Previti for WITF.

A hearing in Clairton, Pa. to discuss a settlement for air pollution violations at US Steel's Clairton Coke Works. Photo: Reid R. Frazier

Environmental accountability

A hearing in Clairton, Pa. to discuss a settlement for air pollution violations at US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works. Photo: Reid R. Frazier

• US Steel agreed to pay a $2.7 million fine earlier this summer because of air pollution violations over the past two years at Clairton coke works. People living nearby say they’re still paying the price. Reid Frazier heard from them at a public forum this week — and Allegheny County health officials could change the settlement terms based on what they heard. Reid’s story for StateImpact Pennsylvania is here.

• There’s a new court battle over environmental and safety records, this time rooted in the Mariner East 2 pipeline project in the eastern part of the state. StateImpact Pennsylvania’s Jon Hurdle reports the Public Utility Commission is fighting orders from the state Office of Open Records to release information on a potential pipeline leak to Delaware County resident Eric Friedman. The commission appealed the OOR’s order to Commonwealth Court. You might remember that StateImpact journalists themselves were in court in western Pa. not too long ago over rights to publish information in sealed documents that were erroneously made public and obtained by the reporting team.

• Allentown-based Talen Energy will pay a $1 million record fine for coal ash pollution discharged into the Susquehanna River near its Brunner Island power plant in eastern York County. Marie Cusick has the full story for StateImpact Pennsylvania.

Best of the rest

Matt Rourke / AP Photo

A person exits Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, Wednesday, June 26, 2019. The owner of hospital has announced it will close in September because of what the company calls “continuing, unsustainable financial losses.”

• Amazon will add about 800 full-time jobs when it opens a new fulfillment center near the Pittsburgh Airport later this year. But thousands of Pennsylvanians have lost their jobs so far this year between a furniture factory, hospital, refinery and other large facilities closing throughout the commonwealth, PennLive’s Daniel Urie reports.

• Murders allegedly committed by parolees have spiked recently in Pennsylvania. Some state officials have cautioned against any “knee jerk reactions” to the rise. As WITF’s Katie Meyer reports, longer-term data presents a more nuanced picture. Stats and her story are here.

• If you’d like to get an overview of the hidden future costs involved with voting machines — which, if you’re a Pennsylvanian, you’ll pay for — check out my convo with WITF host/reporter Rachel McDevitt.