Rich Coal Of The Pittsburgh Region example essay topic

INTRODUCTION The 21st century is an age of environmental awareness. We have commissions and agencies that measure our pollution in minutiae level parts per million. There is study after study of the affects of not only elemental health pollution, but also mental health pollution. Although there is no doubt of the importance of this era of hyper-awareness of this movement, it is a new phenomena in the spectrum of history. In the United States, a vanguard in environmental awareness has only seriously started legislating pollution controls for the protection of its citizens in the past thirty years. Many detractors, even today, feel that it is a loosing battle and that regulation of pollution control is indirect conflict with the industrial machine that is the backbone of the United States economy.

However, there is one example of a region of this country that demonstrates not only the successful combination of environmental control and business, but this relationship was started forty years before the nations first pollution regulations were drafted to Congress. Pittsburgh's story is one of suffering and redemption that no city, no community no region can claim to be more tragic and hopeful in its fight against pollution. A city founded in a river valley rich with resources; central access by water, rail and road; and integral to the key to the creation of a nation; Pittsburgh knew days when no vegetation grew from the soil and the sky was permanent midnight twenty four hours a day. That was life in the monikered "Smoke City" until citizens and businesses took fate into their own hands and cleaned themselves up. Their struggle endured hardship and death, but the residents of Pittsburgh found themselves after two hundred years of darkness living in one of the cleanest major cities in the country. HISTORY Before Europeans traveled the Monongahela to the confluence of the "Three Rivers" of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio, Pittsburgh was a sparsely populated area even by the Native Americans.

At best it was a rendezvous point for trade, claimed by no one due to the difficulty in traversing through large waterways and steep hills. For colonists, the trek over the Appalachian and Allegheny Mountains was enough to make the Pittsburgh region almost unreachable. On November 23, 1753, an officer of the Virginia Militia-Major George Washington-sent to give warning to Britain's enemy, the French forces, on the Ohio river a warning as a precursor to the French & Indian War -- noted in his journal the confluence of the major rivers. "This location is extremely well suited for a fort as it has absolute command of the rivers and all its terrain". He built Fort Prince George, which was lost to the French within the year and renamed Fort Duquesne. The location of the fort was so remote and difficult to attack that it was largely ignored throughout the war.

Three years later, George Washington made his attempt to reclaim the fort and the garrison was so confident of the geography of the fort that they had let the wood dry rot. Rather than risking musket fire burning the garrison to the ground, the French surrendered and abandoned the fort. It was then renamed Fort Pitt. It was in these modest beginnings that we already see the development and assumption of the power of the locality and the lack of gratitude and care given to the land that offered so much getting nothing in return.

With the birth of Pittsburgh, the city, was also the origin of its smoky heritage. As early as 1753, coal was the recognized as the most readily available and best heating source in the area. The region had an almost limitless supply of coal. The voluminous clouds of blackness were seen as advertisements of the new city's industrious population in the 18th century.

The geographic design on the confluence and high south hills kept the smoke gathered over the city. Between 1780-1830 new settlers carved arable farm land from the surrounding forest and hills to become a self-sufficient community from the rest of the country, but agriculturally the Allegheny region was not a thriving as the central plains of Pennsylvania or the flat lands of Virginia. The city's growth was fed by its coal, iron, zinc, and oil and expedited by its major waterways giving easy access from the Mississippi to the Potomac. The city stood as an antithesis to the pastoral values of most of the frontier.

One visitor noted in 1829, "After two weeks through white clear, cheerful-looking villages to come all at once upon dirty streets dark houses and filth enveloped in an atmosphere of smoke and soot which blighted everything in sight, was not a pleasant transition". The early 1800's saw no relief from smoke, as the pig iron foundries, rolling mills, coke furnaces, blast furnaces and hot ovens took over the landscape of the city, country and region. The concept of a new industrial aesthetic even spawned an artistic movement as popular as the pastoral art of the Hudson Valley school, creating a Mon Valley school of art showing the romance of steel complexes and starry nights above the glowing furnaces. The growth of the nation also grew the demand on goods, which Pittsburgh had in endless supply. The chief commodity was still coal. PROBLEM The impact of the demand for goods was exacerbated by the railroads, which connected Atlantic to Pacific, and made Pittsburgh's resources a cookie jar that every American could reach his hand in.

The demand was so great during the birth of the industrial revolution that the population of Western Pennsylvania tripled from five million in 1850 to fifteen million in 1870. These communities, mostly immigrants, lived in poorly organized company "Patch" towns, rarely with any sanitation concerns. The human pollution alone ruined many watersheds and disease like cholera, dysentery and cholera were pandemic. The coal industry's major impacts were numerous.

Strip mining scared the Earth. The mine waste, or gob piles, filled streams with acid drainage turning waterways rust-orange. But worst of all was the smokes. Carbon is required to make iron and steel.

Historically, iron had been made with charcoal. However, "coke" made from carbon rich coal of the Pittsburgh region made the iron process cheaper, faster and stronger. Burning down coal created Coke and taking only the remaining carbon and these factories were able to operate within city limits for convenience. To this day Pittsburgh's Conners ville Coke is considered the best in the world for making steel. Ovens ran twenty-four hours a day to keep up with demand. The soot from these massive coke oven stacks were known to blight even the vibrant colors of fall.

Throughout the country, trains pumped coal into their ovens and mixed a combination of pure white snowy steam with the acrid ebony smoke of coal soot. The continuous use of rail in Western PA had as much an effect on the countryside as coke ovens. While all cities in the beginning of the twentieth century dealt with issues of a growing urban population with issues like sewage, Pittsburgh had to deal with similar problems and more. In 1909, the city installed its first sewage filtration system which dropped typhoid deaths from 15 million a year (six times the national average) to 500,000. Meanwhile, the city-which sat on the confluence of three of the largest rivers in the country-did not have a safe water source. An estimated 2.5 tons of sulfuric acid flowed into the Ohio from mine drainage.

Spring water smelled of eggs and ran yellow from the ground. The soot from the stacks blanketed everything, and any water source not spoiled by sulfur and gob, was mixed with the thick black residue of the sky. It was noted at the turn of the century that Pittsburgh Fashion was a national term used to describe color schemes of dark muted colors used by local inhabitant since bright colors were unable to be worn outdoors for long without taking on a dingy appearance. SOLUTION The first attempts at solving what writer James Parton called in 1866, "Hell with the lid off", came shortly after the civil war. Farmers had complained that the industrial pollution was affecting their crop and livestock. Some citizens also complained about the lack of potable water for themselves as well as their animals.

The case was sent to the Supreme Court and a landmark decision of Pen Coal Co. vs. Sanderson (1886) concluded, "the exigencies of the great industrial interest must be kept in view... and slight inconvenience or annoyance they ought not be held accountable". The decision sealed the fate of industry from environmental liability for almost a century. Many politicians ran on platforms of creating a cleaner Pittsburgh. Each politician quickly became a footnote in history, as they were just as quickly removed form office. Some pressure came from industry, but even more resistance came from the population and unions fearing that any change to cleaning up Pittsburgh would result in either the cost being shifted on the backs of the worker or, worse, the loss of jobs.

Nothing would be done about cleaning up Smoke City until an powerful movement for reform came from an unlikely place. The great industrial robber-barons, who made their fortunes on the back of Pittsburgh, started to push for a cleaner city. Names like Carnegie, Mellon, Frick, Rockefeller, Morgan, and Westinghouse suggested to city government to make some changes. Their changes, less altruistic, as they were just aesthetically self-centered (they tired of living in the smoke as well), started the first commission to look at smoke control.

By 1936, there seemed to be a direction for the city to clean itself up. By 1940, the combination of the frustration of the smoke combined with anti-smoke committees headed by wealthy Pittsburgh ians insulated the livelihood of politicians to allow them a chance to look for solution. The first step in solving the smoke problem, came in February 1941 when the Pittsburgh Press ran a series on St. Louis's access in pushing for filtered "smokeless" chimneys. After reading this, the mayors office was flooded with 200 letters a day demanding similar actions.

The city commission on clean air held public meetings and concluded the city's goal was to eliminate, not abate, smoke. The city would have to do it without reducing coal production or imposing costs for compliance. Initial resistance from coal companies disappeared as the Steel City Industrial Union and United Mine Workers endorsed the city's smokeless plan. The concern of a backlash of a chronically economically depressed community being asked to pay more for fuel was solved by the media. The media was critical in generating a positive public attitude. From political cartoons and in-depth reporting, the media pounded the importance of clean air over the cost to the community.

Stories argued that the added cost in cleaner fuel use was offset by increased efficiency of fuel-which would make it cheaper in the long run. The media also pushed the change to natural gas (the biggest competitor to the coal industry for heating fuel) instead of fuel. The shift from coal in Pittsburgh was dramatic. While cities like Chicago switched 20% of their households from coal to gas from 1940-1950, Pittsburgh switched from 81% of all coal households down to 31%. What is even more significant was that coal demand increased nationwide and 80% of all coal in the country was coming from Western Pennsylvania.

Unfortunately, the resulting Clean Air Act of 1940 that resulted from this civic campaign to clean itself up, disappeared in December 1941 with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the start of the Second World War. There were significant changes made however, and it is still known as the Pittsburgh Renaissance. After WWII, newly elected Mayor David Lawrence gave full support to renewing Pittsburgh commitment to smoke elimination. The grass roots power base had eroded under the push for post-war recovery. Industry was able to use the 1886 Supreme Court decision to negate any need for compliance with the renewed Clean Air policy. The clouds regathered over the city, figuratively and literally.

Any chance of removing the smoke from Smoke City, was fading fast until a "Hell came on Halloween". A freak weather phenomenon created a temperature inversion, in October 1948, forcing the lower airflow to trap itself closer to the ground in the Mon Valley just east of Pittsburgh. The city of Donora was situated in a horseshoe turn of the Monongahela River enclosed by high hills to the south, like Pittsburgh. The coal, sulfur and zinc smoke from the local plants enveloped the town and surrounding farmland.

It the darkness smothered the region and fourteen thousand inhabitants were hospitalized from sulfur oxide and carbon monoxide poisoning. Seventeen people died within the first twelve hours. The post-war world was a time in which mortality rates from disease had declined enough that health services were allowed to shift their health concerns to other causes. Donora was a demonstrative relationship to air pollution and people's health. The Public Health Services used Donora as a national wake up call to the newly termed 'smog.

' The U.S. Surgeon General called Donora a giant "scientific test tube" for studying pollution. "The air pollution episode stimulated the first flow of legislative proposals at the federal level in 1949". May Lawrence let Donora be his battle cry as well, and was able to re institute the pre-war clean air plan, now renamed the Smoke Control Ordinance of Allegheny County 1949. While the country struggled to understand how to deal with this new problem of smog pollution, Pittsburgh started is second renaissance with renewed vigor.

It knew the keys to success. The change to new technology and civic / industry commitment pushed reform faster than legislation could keep up. By 1953, coal driven steam trains were almost completely replaced with cleaner diesel engines. Smoke abatement was a serious precondition for all new industry. Natural beauty became on par with the commodities of natural resources. SUMMARY Smoke City at the turn of the 20th century was a dark dismal place.

The cities was the picture of the industrial machine of dark buildings broken by factories and furnaces on every corner that bellowed a dark blanket that suffocated the community as well as the environment. But Pittsburgh is a story of hope as well as abuse. It is a story of how community, industry and government all conclude on their own the importance of protecting their environment and themselves and self-motivate to correct their mistakes. It takes commitment and motivation, it takes someone to stand up and say that pollution is wrong.

But Pittsburgh, teaches us the two most important lessons-that problems are not solved by identifying the problem but using our American innovation to find solutions for ourselves, and that change is much more effective when people are motivated to change on their own instead of being legislated. MLA

Bibliography

Frank Toke. (1986).
Pittsburgh: An Urban Portrait. Pennsylvania State University Press. Joel Tarr (Ed. ). (2003).
Devastation and Renewed. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Carmen DiCiccio (1996).
Coal and Coke. Pittsburgh: Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission Rade Vukmie (1996).
The Mill. Lanham, Md. : University Press of American Inst. Abby Mandelson (2004).