VCAN & Pitt Law School E-Clinic Host Dr. Vann in Clairton

About our Event

Valley Clean Air Now (VCAN) is a small, non profit based in the Mon Valley.  Most of our Board members live in Clairton and Glassport within the Monongahela River Valley in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. We are a community-led movement for a better future.

Dr. Vann has agreed to listen to three of our Board members present their views about Clairton Coke Works' (CCW) toxic emissions. Our Board members know of the devastating effects on their health and our ecosystem that this pollution has caused. Board member Cindy Meckel, pictured above, will speak. Board member Johnie Perryman, pictured below, will also speak.

In addition, law students from the University of Pittsburgh Law School's Environmental Law Clinic will then present legal arguments to support the VCAN Board members.  These legal arguments are largely based upon the need for ACHD to embrace its duties as trustee of "public natural resources" set forth within our Pennsylvania Constitution. Professor Josh Ash is the Director of the E-Law Clinic.

The Pennsylvania Constitution was amended in 1971 to include the following:

The people have a right to clean air, pure water and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and aesthetic values of the environment.

Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come.

As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.

Article 1, Section 27.

Specifically, our Board members and Pitt Law students will discuss:

• ACHD's current "pay to pollute" enforcement policy towards CCW has allowed this business to exploit and degrade our air, water and soil. This policy has forced many of our neighbors and businesses to leave the Mon Valley;

• childhood asthma, cancer, cardio-vascular disease health data for local residents is evidence of a public health disaster; and  

• excessive benzene emissions from CCW in 2021 and 2013 have not been addressed by ACHD.

Dr. Vann plans to depart at noon. Thereafter, the meeting will continue for another hour with public discussion on topics raised earlier and moderated by Professor Ash. Light refreshments and sandwiches will be served. 

Please RSVP if you will join us. Attendance will be limited to 40 persons.