Environmental advocates say Allegheny County Health Department isn’t listening to them

ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. — Environmental advocates and other residents took the Allegheny County Health Department to task for what it said was not enough dialogue and transparency over their concerns about the county’s air pollution and what steps it has taken to reduce unhealthy emissions.

Limits on communication with community members over air pollution-related matters has become a trend over the tenure of Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen, said Matthew Mehalik, executive director of the Pittsburgh-based Breathe Project, during public comment at the meeting of the Allegheny County Board of Health on Wednesday.

Breathe Project had hoped that Bogen’s hiring in May 2020 would help improve the communication between residents, particularly in environmental justice communities. Mehalik said the group had been patient during the pandemic response, but ACHD had during that time “stonewalled” repeated requests for meetings with community groups over air pollution issues; put into place a confusing and difficult complaint system (GovQA); and not allowed community members to speak with ACHD staff individually. Instead, Mehalik said, everything had to go through ACHD COO Patrick Dowd.

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