4 ms·

To those saying "nah, it's fine there" in Pittsburgh, I can absolutely say this is a problem, but this varies drastically area to area. I lived there for about

by eyegor 7y ago

To those saying "nah, it's fine there" in Pittsburgh, I can absolutely say this is a problem, but this varies drastically area to area. I lived there for about 20 years, and industrial pollution is a well known problem there. It isn't exactly advertised, but the city water around the cmu-google-downtown region has failed tests many times, and at least on two occasions the city provided water filters due to contaminants. This is mostly due to how old the city is, rusty and lead pipes in old homes are impossible for the city to track and fix. This is true everywhere in the rust belt. Air quality in Pittsburgh gets really bad once you go out past googles neck of the woods, that used to be covered in steel mills, plastics manufacturing, coal and trash burning plants. I understand the desire to live near work, but please don't move near bakery square. They can try to cover it up, but I'm sure the ground is contaminated as well. The entire thing used to be a factory before they bulldozed it in the early 2000s. And nearly all the land near a river will have been used by industry at some point. There's a reason why you can pick 4 locals and at least one has asthma. Edit: for fun, here's a reminder of what the city looked like during the steel days. You couldn't wear white clothing because of the soot in the air. http://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/citylab/legacy/2012/06/05/p17.jpg http://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/citylab/legacy/2012/06/05/p...

lightedman 7y ago
"This is mostly due to how old the city is, rusty and lead pipes in old homes are impossible for the city to track and fix." It shouldn't be that hard to track at all with a little brainpower. When did we stop using lead and iron piping? Add another 10 years forward and start from that date back, and find every home matching the age/time range. Everything else should be copper and/or plastic.
- xeromal 7y ago
  Who has those records? Are they accurate? Are they digitized? Are they consolidated into one place? Are they accurate?
  - munmaek 7y ago
    No, no, you don't get it. This problem must be so easy and people quite simply haven't fixed it yet. Armchair analysts on HN know better than the people / agencies working on the problem. /s My guess is they do have (some) data, but it's split among departments, in different formats. Assuming detailed records were kept that far back.
    - lightedman 7y ago
      "Armchair analysts on HN know better than the people" You'd assume I'm an armchair analyst instead of someone that actually does civil planning work. They have ALL of that data. It's in the damned city plats. Go pay $20 and get a copy of your neighborhood's electrical and piping. Hell you can actually look it up for free online using ARCGIS.
- eyegor 7y ago
  Lead can also hang around in deposits in copper and brass piping or dissolve/precipitate with manganese from water treatment plants. Up until 1986 (epa ban) people still put together copper and brass pipe systems with lead solder. You would have to test or replace every section of piping installed prior to 1986. As another commenter pointed out, the chance of accurate records is basically nil. The best you could do is inspect every structure constructed and pipe laid until 1986, which would require a ton of taxpayer money. Good luck convincing people to vote for that. Edit: Another consideration - I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a "lead scale" like with lime or calcium which could even hang around in "good" copper pipes. Someone more familiar with chemistry or water/wastewater engineering could probably give a more educated answer.
- aardvark291 7y ago
  > When did we stop using lead and iron piping? Who says we stopped? Water mains often have service life > 100 years. Old buildings have old plumbing.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- lawrencevillain 7y ago
  They actually have a somewhat decent map that shows you all of the lead pipes and their replacement strategy around the city. http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=1aae14d661b94ba0906aaba0d0f9108f&extent=-80.1996,40.3332,-79.7392,40.5274 http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=1aae14d...
ChikkaChiChi 7y ago
Bakery Square was a Nabisco factory. Unless you are worried about what they are putting in your Teddy Grahams, I'm not exactly worried that there is a conspiracy to cover up some Superfund site. There is a lot of feeling in the parent comment, but not a lot of fact. Just because you can smell the pollution in Pittsburgh doesn't mean that it's any worse than the cities with that have lower air quality ratings due to odorless contaminants. Every city can do better. Just don't expect them to install giant fans on top of Mt Washington to blow away some odor.

by eyegor 7y ago

lightedman 7y ago

"This is mostly due to how old the city is, rusty and lead pipes in old homes are impossible for the city to track and fix." It shouldn't be that hard to track at all with a little brainpower. When did we stop using lead and iron piping? Add another 10 years forward and start from that date back, and find every home matching the age/time range. Everything else should be copper and/or plastic.

xeromal 7y ago
Who has those records? Are they accurate? Are they digitized? Are they consolidated into one place? Are they accurate?
- munmaek 7y ago
  No, no, you don't get it. This problem must be so easy and people quite simply haven't fixed it yet. Armchair analysts on HN know better than the people / agencies working on the problem. /s My guess is they do have (some) data, but it's split among departments, in different formats. Assuming detailed records were kept that far back.
  - lightedman 7y ago
    "Armchair analysts on HN know better than the people" You'd assume I'm an armchair analyst instead of someone that actually does civil planning work. They have ALL of that data. It's in the damned city plats. Go pay $20 and get a copy of your neighborhood's electrical and piping. Hell you can actually look it up for free online using ARCGIS.
eyegor 7y ago
Lead can also hang around in deposits in copper and brass piping or dissolve/precipitate with manganese from water treatment plants. Up until 1986 (epa ban) people still put together copper and brass pipe systems with lead solder. You would have to test or replace every section of piping installed prior to 1986. As another commenter pointed out, the chance of accurate records is basically nil. The best you could do is inspect every structure constructed and pipe laid until 1986, which would require a ton of taxpayer money. Good luck convincing people to vote for that. Edit: Another consideration - I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a "lead scale" like with lime or calcium which could even hang around in "good" copper pipes. Someone more familiar with chemistry or water/wastewater engineering could probably give a more educated answer.
aardvark291 7y ago
> When did we stop using lead and iron piping? Who says we stopped? Water mains often have service life > 100 years. Old buildings have old plumbing.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
lawrencevillain 7y ago
They actually have a somewhat decent map that shows you all of the lead pipes and their replacement strategy around the city. http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=1aae14d661b94ba0906aaba0d0f9108f&extent=-80.1996,40.3332,-79.7392,40.5274 http://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=1aae14d...

ChikkaChiChi 7y ago

Bakery Square was a Nabisco factory. Unless you are worried about what they are putting in your Teddy Grahams, I'm not exactly worried that there is a conspiracy to cover up some Superfund site. There is a lot of feeling in the parent comment, but not a lot of fact. Just because you can smell the pollution in Pittsburgh doesn't mean that it's any worse than the cities with that have lower air quality ratings due to odorless contaminants. Every city can do better. Just don't expect them to install giant fans on top of Mt Washington to blow away some odor.