Mapping Wicked Problems | Poor Air Quality in Pittsburgh

Carnegie Mellon, Transition Design Seminar 2022

Team Strange Attractor– Alexis Morrell, Emily Edlich, Hannah Kim, Kristian Pham, Shariq Shah

Introduction

The majority of Pittsburgh’s air pollution comes from industrial sources such as manufacturing, electricity generation, and land fills. According to PennEnvironment, there are ten industrial facilities that directly impact Pittsburgh’s poor air quality. In 2019, these ten industrial facilities have contributed to more than 60% of the air pollution from all industrial sources in the country.

According to the 2021 American Lung Association State of the Air report, more than 40% of Americans live with unhealthy ozone or particle pollution. Looking at Pittsburgh, the report ranked the metro area 9th worst in the nation for annual particle pollution, even though it has been the best year for year-round levels. Grades for all pollutant measures tracked, which include daily and year-round fine particle pollution and ozone smog, remained as “F’s”. The EPA’s air quality index indicates that in 2021, the air quality was not considered to be good for 200 days.

Not only has Pittsburgh’s air pollution levels impacted the environment, it has also been harmful to the health of Pittsburgh citizens. The Breathe Project states that there are more than 1.2 million people at risk. Toxic emissions generated from the industrial facilities are directly linked to serious health risks including cancer, birth defects, reproductive problems, and heart disease. The University of Pittsburgh has ranked Allegheny County with the highest cancer risk from air pollution. In addition to this, the Director of Environmental Health Kevin Stewart states that high air pollution levels could trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks and stroke, placing certain people at risk. He highlights that ozone and particle pollution are the most harmful and widespread air pollutants in the U.S.

Our research analyzes the causes and consequences of Pittsburgh’s poor air quality to understand the complexities and interrelatedness of factors through a holistic lens.

Approach & Process

We mapped this wicked problem using the STEEP framework. We broke down and examined the interrelated and interdependent issues within these 5 archetypal areas:

1. Infrastructure/Science/Technology Issues
2. Political/Legal Issues
3. Social Issues
4. Business/Economic Issues
5. Environmental Issues

We compiled a list of literature review on poor air quality in Pittsburgh into a shared spreadsheet and began to separate the insights from each reading into a STEEP category.

Sources for Literature Review

From the research, we were able to pick apart the various factors that played a role in affecting Pittsburgh’s poor air quality. We began mapping our wicked problem by identifying major issues within each category. We then linked those major issues to sub-issues. As we moved from our literature review to the initial wicked problem mapping, we realized that there were many more social issues than technological or infrastructural issues. It was interesting to see that most of the literature review focused on how poor air quality affected communities and individuals. We went back to gain more insights for categories that were lacking within our map.

Wicked Problem Map: Poor Air Quality in Pittsburgh

Key Insights

• U.S. Steel Facilities: In the Pittsburgh area, 60% of pollution comes from industrial sources like steel plants. The biggest industrial facility polluters are required to obtain a Title V permit to indicate that they have the potential to emit more than 100 tons of a single pollutant. Emissions are the result of industrial polluters like U.S. Steel, which repeatedly violate clean air laws. There are many byproducts of these polluters including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and benzene. These byproducts not only affect the environment in ways that contaminate and damage water, soil, plant, crop growth, but they are also known to cause serious health issues, such as cancer and toxicity, in aquatic animals and humans.
• Mindsets: Pittsburgh’s history and heritage is deeply connected to the steel industry, which has profoundly affected Pittsburgh residents. Many Pittsburgh citizens take on the mindset that the steel industry provides economic stability and has elevated Pittsburgh to the nation and the world. This not only affects local residents, but also those with political power. For example, Republican policymakers and industry groups remain opposed to emissions regulation, citing that they may hurt communities that rely on these industries or raise electricity bills. This has caused a fragmentation in legislative regulation to reduce emissions.
• Federal Clean Air Standards: Environmentalists state that there is still a long way in regards to Pittsburgh complying with federal clean air standards. A main factor is because pollutants such as benzene and hydrogen sulfide are not part of the ambient air quality standards. Another factor is that the current standard for soot pollution is still high (12 micrograms per cubic meter) in comparison to the level that scientists suggest (8–10 micrograms per cubic meter). The lack of strict regulations within these standards only puts the burden of poor air quality on communities that are nearby these industrial facilities and people who are already at risk for serious health conditions.
• Low Income Communities: Poor air quality disproportionately affects citizens in low income neighborhoods. The reason for this is because the largest industrial polluters are located near these neighborhoods, leaving these communities to experience generations of air pollution. Members in these communities, especially children and seniors, have higher health risks which include asthma attacks, heart attacks and stroke. Ultimately, residents with a higher health risk such as asthma are advised not to go outside or limit their time outside which lead to other wicked problems.
• Links to Other Wicked Problems: These key insights all connect to other wicked problems. For example, by limiting the time seniors have outside leads to the isolation of the elderly in Pittsburgh. The byproducts that come from the industrial facilities plays a role in restricting access to healthy food. Fragmented legislation in regulating air pollution standards allows industrial facilities to take over certain areas in Pittsburgh, trapping low income communities within those areas and not allowing for affordable housing in areas with less air pollution.

Reflection

The STEEP mapping process helped us identify key factors that affect air quality in Pittsburgh. We learned that going from the literature review to our first iteration of mapping our wicked problem was a challenge because we were still working within a specific category, causing silos to happen within our map. Once we realized this, we were able to reroute and give more intentionality to the interconnections that were happening from category to category. This method helped us realize the connections happening at different scales– micro and macro levels.