Could Pittsburgh's Dirty Air Hurt Amazon HQ2 Bid?

PITTSBURGH, PA - Pittsburgh’s poor air quality probably won’t help the city in its quest to land Amazon’s second headquarters.

The American Lung Association’s 2018 State of the Air report found that southwestern Pennsylvania continues to have some of the nation’s filthiest air. Some of the cleanest air belongs to three other finalist cities.

Pittsburgh is among 20 finalists vying to land Amazon's HQ2, with the e-commerce giant to decide the winner later this year. Amazon has committed investing as much as $50 billion in the new campus, which eventually could house as many as 50,000 employees.

The Lung Association report offered grim findings for the Pittsburgh-New Castle-Weirton area. The region:

• Ranked 8th out of 187 metropolitan areas in annual particle pollution.

• Ranked 10th out of 201 metropolitan areas for 24-hour particle pollution.

• Ranked 32nd out of 227 metropolitan areas in high ozone days.

By contrast, three finalist cities, Columbus, Dallas and Austin - were rated among the cleanest cities for short-term particle pollution.

Dr. Karen Hacker, head of the Allegheny County Health Department, noted that the county has strengthened its air quality enforcement actions and will strengthen them further in the report’s wake.

“The area is on a long-term trend towards improvement, but we have further to go,” she said. “We will continue to be aggressive and proactive to improve the air quality in our county, but also recognize that enforcement alone will not achieve our goals.”

Hacker said the health department is calling upon industry leaders at both the local and regional levels to it in doing what is needed to accelerate change.

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