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Appalachia
deserves the
freedom to breathe.

Pollution of our air, water and soil disproportionately harms Black communities, communities of color, and other marginalized populations. Together, we can shift power from big polluters to the people, and protect everyone in Allegheny County's human right to health.

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A LEGACY OF POLLUTION
IN ALLEGHENY COUNTY

Welcome to Allegheny County, Pennsylvania’s second-most populous county after Philadelphia County. Home to over 1.2 million people, Allegheny County is the site of numerous industrial facilities, oil and gas plants, and producers.

In cities like Pittsburgh, residents breathe some of the worst air quality in the nation. In this county, residents inhale millions of pounds of toxic pollutants – including substances linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive problems, and other health issues.

a child wearing a medical breathing device, set on a background of a smoggy and polluted city
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OUR GOAL

Ensure that all of Allegheny County has the freedom to breathe clean air

By reforming our county's health and air quality programs, we can ensure that the Clean Air Fund (CAF) and Allegheny County Department of Health protect our communities, not polluters. Their reliance on fines creates a conflict of interest, allowing industries "pay to pollute." To prioritize public health over profits, we must reform ACHD funding and update the CAF to better serve the people.

A row of residential homes with poluting factories billowing smoke behind them

What we're fighting for

Freedom To Breathe is a county-wide, community-led campaign that will protect Allegheny County residents' right to health by fundamentally reforming the systems and decision-making structures that enable industrial facilities to have disproportionate influence over our local government and to keep poisoning our communities. Here are the policy changes we are fighting for:

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New Streams of Investment for the ACHD

Fund the Allegheny County Health Department with county tax dollars, not fines and penalties from the Clean Air Fund (CAF), which keeps the industry polluting.

a carbon capture plant sits against the landscape

STOP THE
GREENWASHING

Stop big polluters attempts to make their actions more palatable. Call out carbon capture and  related technologies like 'blue' hydrogen and biomass for what they are—false solutions.

two members of the Allegheny Health Department sitting in a board room

Develop a
New Clean Air Fund

Develop a community-led process to create new Clean Air Fund (CAF) goals for the ACHD, Board, and Air Quality Advisory Committee.

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END
INDUSTRY

INFLUENCE

Ensure that policy and regulation is being driven by the communities impacted by pollution—the people of Allegheny County. Call out when politicians and policymakers are in the industry's pocket.

A small town on the coast of the river in Appalachia, with billowing smoke coming from a factory

Prioritize Community Investment

Create a community-led grantmaking table to ensure the ACHD invests Clean Air Fund resources directly into impacted communities.

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NO MORE
PERMITS FOR
POLLUTERS

Stop the harm to our communities at the source by ending the permitting of new extractive projects that leave our community to clean up the mess.

Allegheny county'S toxic 10

Check out Penn Environment's map of the 10 Allegheny County active industrial facilities with the “most toxic” air emissions in 2021 “based on the facilities’ releases of toxic substances into the air as reported to the U.S. EPA’s Toxics Release Inventory (TRI),” (Masur et al., 2023). This list does not include other contributors to this toxic situation, namely the ever-expanding list of oil and gas plants and producers in the county.

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STRONG VOICES

BRAVE SPACES,

It's time to create spaces where Black and marginalized communities can share their stories and harvest the power they contain.

 

By amplifying each other's voices, we can build a movement that truly represents the people, and shifts power away from extractive industries that have held power over us for too long.

centering community in

the fight for clean air

A woman and a child in a daycare facility

"IN MY HEART,
I CRY.
I CRY OVER WHAT THEY'VE DONE

TO US."

-Cheryl Hurt,
Clairton Resident & Grandmother

"SINCE I'VE BEEN HOME, I'VE NOTICED A DIFFERENCE.

I'VE GOTTEN SICK MORE AND HAD MORE PROBLEMS BREATHING.
 

-Chris Wilding,
Clairton Resident, Diabetic & Daughter

A woman stand on her porch, with a polluting factory in the distance behind her
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TAKE THE PLEDGE

DECLARE THAT HEALTH IS A HUMAN RIGHT. SUPPORT THE FREEDOM TO BREATHE

The people of Allegheny County's human rights are being violated every day by environmental racism at the hands of big polluters. We as community pay the price for the industry's pollution with our health, wealth, well-being, and quality of life. Our families breathe some of the worst air in the nation.

 

Make your voice heard. Take the pledge to protect health as a human right for people today, and for future generations.

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RECLAIMING OUR VOICES, OUR FUTURES

We envision a future where Allegheny County is free from the harms of pollution and environmental racism—a future where clean air, water, and land are the norm, not the exception. 

 

A future where everyone has the freedom to breathe isn't just possible—it's necessary. 

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