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 Notes from the Tour de PAC

What does it mean to ride a bike across Pennsylvania? Before the Tour de PAC, I thought it meant several things: 1) Raising awareness of environmental threats to the health of people, pets, wildlife, and life itself. 2) Demonstrating that people are willing to endure hardship for the sake of others. 3) Listening to people suffering from environmental threats to their health and lives and collecting their statements so that government leaders and agencies will pay more attention to them than to the lobbyists who work for the polluting forces. But that leaves out a few things that became clear to me by the third day of the Tour.

The Tour de PAC, in which people travel by bicycle across Pennsylvania, also means 4) learning the facts and histories of various parts of our commonwealth, which have faced, fought, and continue to fight the polluting forces. (I didn’t learn this in school or from the evening news.) 5) It also means meeting people contending with smelly fracking pads, badly placed landfills, asphalt plants and power plants. And 6) it means cultivating relationships with people and groups who benefit from sharing advice, resources, ideas and morale with one another. It means seeing very clearly that all of the small, local groups and people fighting the polluting forces are not alone, nor are they helpless. Together, they are a rising power for the health and well-being of all Pennsylvanians.

In the following, I have written down observations from the two days I spent driving an escort car with the Tour de PAC. Of course, I would have liked to have been with the Tour every day, but I have work, kids and lots of other responsibilities, just as most Pennsylvanians do. And this article would have been a lot longer than it already is. You don’t have to do everything to be part of the solution to environmental problems; you need to make a little time to do what you can and follow through, stay in touch and keep going. These notes and observations are not in chronological order, but come as they may. So while we saw a lot of polluting industries and heard from a lot of small, local, environmental groups fighting them, we also experienced what we are fighting for: beautiful skies, clean air, quiet meadows, open spaces and cool green forests. I’ll start with some general observations from the road of the Tour de PAC.

Runners know that walking is not running. Cyclists know that cycling is neither of those. But as I was driving an escort car behind the cyclists for the 2023 Tour de PAC, I observed that while it is fairly easy to guess someone’s age by the way they walk or run, people on bikes look very much the same. Bikes don’t limp, for one. The cyclist going uphill will have a hard time, no matter who it is. Cyclists going down hill fly on the wings of eagles, no matter their years or condition, and the joy on their faces has no age. Whoever they are, there is still that nodding of shoulders, side to side, so the body’s weight hovers above the foot that is pushing down on the high pedal. Obviously, in a race, the younger folks will tend to do a little better than folks much, much older; but when you are just riding, it is as if youth eternal has sprung into the eyes of the cyclist. You see the glide with one foot up and the other down, both on the petals, standing up off the seat, contemplating if the legs should turn faster or just enjoy the swooping speed of the down hill, feeling that there is no necessity to do one or the other; you have choices. You can taste the audacity of the ride; the consternation of drivers tempered by their conscience, and their memory of once riding a bike and loving it. Life is good.

Cycling is also not driving, though it can also take you places far from home, landscapes, animals and insects, most of which are unusual, and expanses of sky and cloud, of tree and grass, that leap up like a splashing stream, unfamiliar and refreshing. You hear the sound of crickets, not the rush of metal through air or the rasping of tires on pavement. You see a monarch butterfly fluttering from flower to flower in a field left fallow, not the remains of that feathery, flitting soul on a windshield, looking more like spit than the colorful, glittering, meadow-dancer. You do not stop for gas, but for rest, an ease of weariness, water, a long look at cloud formations, a check on directions, a desperate dash indoors out of the cold and rain, and the company of strangers who you find warmer than the warm cafe by the trail, more intelligent than government officials, but as dedicated as you to persevere against those who find little value in clean air and cloud, rain and pure water, green tree leaves and grass; against those whose actions, if left to themselves, will destroy all of these landmarks of beauty.

We stood on a hillside in Monaca, beside the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute listening to Bob, a man who had been in the construction business in the area for decades talk about how the factories in that Ohio River Valley had dumped cancer-causing substances, such as Cadmium, into the air in that valley, so that all of the soil along the valley and hillsides was riddled with it. And yet, there were new townhouses just behind us as he spoke. The government had said that as long as “clean fill” was used to cover the old soil, new buildings could go up. But then he explained that for the Shell Ethylene Cracker Plant, they found this “clean fill” along the hillsides…that had been showered with Cadmium and other carcenogenic substances for decades. Nothing clean about it.

Bob spoke about a meeting that took place before the Cracker Plant was built, inviting the public to come hear about how great the Cracker Plant would be, and to make comments. So Bob went and found himself listening to people talk positively about the plant, how it would be even better than the ones in Louisiana. When he was in a room with two engineers for the project, he asked them a few questions. “Is the land flat in Louisiana?” “Oh yes, yes it is.” “Okay, does the wind blow?” “Sure; it blows right out to the sea.” “Ah. Do you know what a temperature inversion is? You know, when a layer of warmer air sits above cooler air closer to the ground. It traps it, so pollution cannot move away from the area. Near a big river like the Ohio, it turns the whole river valley into a tube, trapping bad air that the people have to breath as long as the temperature inversion lasts. What do you think about that?” One of the engineers just walked away. The other reached for his chest and asked where his high blood pressure medication was. The Cracker Plant was built anyway.

Bob also explained the connection between hydraulic fracking and radioactive fracking waste from the Marcellus shale. The drilling process goes down vertically and then starts to bend out horizontally. Bits of material are brought up to the surface as drilling continues. Once the Geiger counters go off up top, alerting drillers to the presence of radiation, they know they’ve hit an area where there is gas they want to force up to the surface. Pipes are forced down with holes and Fracking fluid is applied to force the gas out. In the process, fracking waste is created, which includes radioactive particles. This radioactive fracking waste can be used a number of times before it has to be replaced. At that point, the fluid needs to be hauled away. A treatment facility that could remove radioactive isotopes would be a good place to send it, but companies do not want to pay to send fracking waste from Pennsylvania to Utah, so the lobbyists they have hired have convinced lawmakers in Harrisburg that the radioactive fracking waste should be put in water treatment plants, landfills, injection wells and even spread on roads as a de-icer and dust suppression agent. Of course, that means putting radioactive waste where it does damage to the treatment facilities and becomes a danger to the water wells people drink from, as well as a danger to the air they breathe when it dries into roadside dust and becomes airborne. One of the landfills where companies want to ship their radioactive fracking waste is currently a garbage transfer station near Grove City, where the Tour de PAC began.

Between the town of Grove City and the Grove City Premium Outlets, a garbage transfer station has been trying to reopen as a regional landfill for over 26 years. This is where we held the rally to start the Tour de PAC on Thursday, September 21^st. Local townships and the group Citizens’ Environmental Association of the Slippery Rock Area (CEASRA, Inc.), have been opposing the transfer station all those years. At one time, it was a local, municipal dump, but when it was bought by the same family that owns Senaca Landfill, tucked just behind the Seneca Valley Schools in Evans City, to the South, plans were laid to eventually bring in construction waste, medical waste and radioactive fracking waste, among other things. The latest permit application stated that 600 trucks a day for at least ten years would bring in the waste from cities and places far away. Instead of using dirt for each layer of “cover” to reduce the odors, the plan changed to using radioactive fracking waste as “cover.” That waste is liquid; it will not stay still on the trash mountain that the landfill intends to create; and they would like to create a 200+ foot mountain. Currently, local ordinances prohibit structures above 40 feet in height, and CEASRA was part of a court case, years ago, that went to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which declared that yes, a trash mound is indeed a structure, and it cannot go beyond that 40 foot height limit. Leachate from the landfill is planned to be piped into local streams at an average rate of 85,000 gallons a day…for at least ten years. That leachate will contain radioactive material and will flow into Wolf Creek, Slippery Rock Creek, Connoquenessing Creek, and the Beaver and Ohio Rivers. The half life is 1600 years.

The owners have stated that they would run the landfill near Grove City just as they run the Seneca Landfill. Seneca Landfill already discharges radioactive effluent leachate directly into Connequennessing Creek with a measured radium 226 level of 118 pCi/L (picocuries/liter), which is prohibited under Federal law because it is hazardous to the environment and human health. The DEP TENORM Study cites the EPA’s cleanup standard, which states that, under CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act — otherwise known as CERCLA or Superfund), the remediation goal for radium 226 in soil is 5 pCi/g (App. Ex. 77, DEP013991, Section 2.0(5). (https://semspub.epa.gov/work/06/647793.pdf) The radiation levels are far above what is considered the limit for safety, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s website, citing EPA contamination level standards, which uses the measures of 5pCi/L (picocuries/liter) for Uranium 226 and 228, and gross alpha activity levels of 15 pCi/L (See page 4 of Radionuclides in Drinking Water: A Small Entity Compliance Guide,  (https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1307/ML13078A038.pdf)

The Seneca leachate measured at 118 pCi/L. So if they run the landfill to be built near Grove City in the same way, levels up to 8 or more times higher than federal safety limits will be added to the same river system as that of Seneca Landfill. How is this good for fishing? How is this good for boating and swimming? What about the livestock that drink from these streams. The businesses, such as Keystone Safari and Big Rail Brewing that use water from this stream system?

It is tempting to read an article like this and think, okay, those are the facts, and now the landfill people will have to abide by them, now the PA DEP will have to abide by them. It’s not that simple. In fact, they are doing the opposite. The PA DEP has already approved this permit for the Tri-County Landfill near Grove City. When asked about these facts, PA DEP officials said they were “okay” with them. It turns out, they need to be compelled by a court to do what is right, and that is what CEASRA has initiated. The PA Department of Environmental Protection needs to protect the health and well being of Pennsylvanians from environmental harms, and, it turns out, needs to be forced to do its own job. When CEASRA and Liberty Township appealed the permit to the Environmental Hearing Board, PA DEP officials testified under oath in April of 2023 that they had not read parts or all of the Tri-County Landfill permit application, and yet they had approved it. Now, to reasonable people, the plans for this landfill allow pollution that is clearly illegal. But companies and even government agencies are not always reasonable, and forcing them to act reasonably takes years of effort and money.

In order for a court to allow evidence, however scientific, to be admitted, it must be presented by an expert witness. So Liberty Township and CEASRA have been bearing the burden not only of legal fees and transcription fees, but fees for expert witnesses. Because the landfill and the flocks of birds that will be drawn to it threaten the operation of the nearby Grove City Airport, one of those expert witness was Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Russ DeFusco (the Bird Air Strike Hazard Program, BASH; Bird Hazard and Wildlife Management Consultants, 5010 Lanagan Street, Colorado Springs, CO 80919) who has written many of the bird strike reports that pilots use when they fly today. The location of the trash mountain that the landfill wants to build would be 1.25 miles away from the airport and in a direct line of planes landing and taking off: the wrong place for a landfill. FAA regulations state that landfills are not permitted within 6 miles of an airport that has received any federal funding, and the Grove City Airport is one of those airports. CEASRA is asking the company managing that airport, as well as the owners, the Borough of Grove City, to file injunctions to stop construction at the landfill site, which began this summer in spite of the legal appeal. Pilots sent pictures of the construction of holding pools to CEASRA, and shortly afterwards, there was a bird strike that caused over $600,000 damage to a plane, and took it out of work for long enough to cost the company a total of $1.2 million in losses. Fortunately, the pilot was able to land without personal injury. That’s one bird. DeFusco pointed out how inadequate the Landfill’s bird strike plan is and that the proposed trash mound is just too close and in the wrong place in relation to the airport.

CEASRA awaits the judgment of the Environmental Hearing Board by the end of this year with the hope that they will rescind this PA DEP permit and not allow this Landfill to go forward. CEASRA’s lawyer, Lisa Johnson of Allegheny County (lisa@lajteam.com ) is also advancing a second appeal, against the NPDES (Water) Permit approved by the PA DEP just as the Environmental Hearing Board was about to begin the court appeal against the Waste Permit. Even if CEASRA and Liberty Township win this case, however, they are sure Tri-County will appeal the findings to a higher court. They have done so four times in the last 26 years. So, while they have a strong case, CEASRA continues to fundraise and apply for grants to help cover the expenses that a Court challenge costs. See www.ceasrapa.com and/or their No Trash Mountain Facebook site (https://m.facebook.com/people/No-Trash-Mountain/100064330763643/) for more information and how to give.

Save Slippery Rock Creek is another local environmental group that is fighting outsiders from polluting the local waterways, and they also took part in the Rally for the Tour de PAC. One of their members who is a retired lawyer from Pittsburgh spoke at the rally to kick off the Tour de PAC. Paul and his wife had bought a home along Slippery Rock Creek as a quiet, retirement place to relax in, after a lifetime of work. A few weeks after they moved in, they found out about plans for an Asphalt Plant on that same waterway. During the pandemic, an Asphalt company bought land along Slippery Rock Creek that was zoned for agricultural or residential use, and then asked to rezone it for industrial use. A huge outpouring of opposition from people in Slippery Rock Township initially convinced the supervisors to vote no. But the company applied for the rezoning again and after their lawyers talked with the supervisors, the rezoning was approved in a virtual meeting. People in cars outside the Slippery Rock Township building honked their horns, but the supervisors voted for the rezoning anyway.

Save Slippery Rock Creek was formed soon afterwards and on Paul’s advice, they mounted a legal challenge to that rezoning. With the help of their lawyer, attorney John Smith of Smith-Butz LLC Attornies at Law (https://smithbutzlaw.com/about/) located in Washington County, they won a court ruling that overturned the rezoning. Save Slippery Rock Creek (SSRC) is now also dealing with the high cost of litigation as the Asphalt company seeks, once again, to apply for special consideration to rezone the area to industrial so they can open their Asphalt plant on Slippery Rock Creek. Like CEASRA, they are fundraising and seeking grants to continue to protect their water and that of everyone downstream in McConnells Mills State Park, Ellwood City, Beaver Falls and all of the towns and cities along the Ohio River. You can find out more about SSRC and how to help them on their website (https://saveslipperyrockcreek.weebly.com/)

Another group at the Rally was Marcellus Outreach Butler, which has been working for years to not only educate people about the dangers of fracking pads to their health, but also helping to mitigate the damage done by the fracking industry. For instance, they have been helping distribute water for over a decade to residents of the Woodlands area of Butler County, whose water was fouled by the fracking industry. They cannot drink their own water and have to get periodic distributions of water to stay alive. This is not a desert community, or somewhere on the other side of the globe. This is Western PA; people like you and me. See the website for Marcellus Outreach Butler (https://www.marcellusoutreachbutler.org/). The groups gave the Tour de PAC a strong start, but there were lots more stories to hear.

We heard people at a meeting at a church in Beaver talk about all of the steps and preparations for “shelter-in-place” plans. It sounded like something out of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, but instead of sheltering from a monstrous dust storm sending dust into homes sealed with oil-soaked rags, people in Beaver and Monaca shelter from the poisonous, cancerous fumes of the nearby industries. Paraphrasing from their advice and slides for a bad air alert: Get inside as quickly as possible. Bring pets inside as well. Turn off air conditioners, furnaces and fans. Close the chimney damper and any openings to the outside. Turn on any indoor air-purifier you may have. Seal doorways, windows, ventilation and exhaust openings with duct take and/or plastic sheeting.

Grab your “go-bag” (more on that later) and get to an interior room without windows. Avoid drinking tap water. Listen for alerts on the radio, TV, internet and mobile apps, and texts with instructions from police, firefighters and other officials. Is this a tornado? No; just any day of the year when there is a bad air alert.

You and your family need to have an evacuation plan that you have practiced. You need alternate routes and meeting places in each direction. Think about where you would go if you could not drive. If you can drive, always keep half a tank of gas in your car; gas stations will be overwhelmed in an evacuation. Have your “go bag(s)” already prepared and inside your car and your home (more on that later).

When given the evacuation alert, leave early. Take all of your family and pets. Follow recommended evacuation routes. If time allows, close your home windows and lock your doors.

Remember those “go-bags?” You need them already prepared and placed in the car and the home. You won’t have time to gather all of the things you need in the moment of the alert. So in advance, assemble the following: respirators fitted to each person, prescribed medications, a first aid kit, containers of water, nonperishable food items, personal hygiene and sanitary products, phone chargers, power banks, battery powered weather radios, flashlights and extra batteries. In a waterproof container: local maps, extra cash, copies of insurance policies, identification, bank account information, emergency medical information. Done?…not yet. Basic tools, a manual can opener, garbage bags, whistle, fire extinguisher, rain gear, matches in a waterproof bag. That’s all?…nope. Blankets, sleeping bags, pillows, extra clothing and shoes for each person in the home, pet food, water, toys and things to keep kids (and pets) entertained.

Is this go-bag for people living in the trenches of World War I? No, just people living in Beaver and Monaca, PA…and other places near such Cracker Plants and other facilities that emit cancer causing and poisonous fumes. In Louisiana, Bob tells us, people sleep in their clothes, since the alert could come at any time, and there’s no time to get dressed. This isn’t a hundred years ago. This is today and in the future, if we let it continue. How is this any kind of proper way for hard-working people to live? There was also discussion about government officials only measuring the pollution of individual polluters, but overlooking the cumulative effect of multiple polluting industries in the same area. Some of the groups represented at the meeting were Mom’s Clean AirForce (https://www.momscleanairforce.org/formats/podcast/) and Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (https://www.marcellusawareness.org/) They have a wealth of information you need to learn about and take action on. It can’t wait for the Steelers’ offense to improve; you need to look into this now.

Well there were lots more to these meetings, as well as free food and nice folks to meet and get to know. I had to head home that night to my family. Bob gave me a pumpkin pie to take to them.

The Tour de PAC also spent some time in Clairton, where the Coke Ovens of the US Steel Clairton Coke Works make the air filthy and dangerous. On top of that, there are no major grocery stores around to get food; just convenience stores, a dollar general. The air’s bad and they can’t get good food unless someone has a car and can travel far away. I took pictures at the end of the Montour Trail. There were small trees planted in the memory of folks who had passed away. Several of the trees were plainly dying, with the Coke Oven fumes rolling into the sky above. The EPA is considering new, stricter standards for the Coke Ovens, but would not hold an in-person meeting in Clairton, just an online one. Even the EPA doesn’t want to come here.

We dropped off the cyclists at the next trailhead, but a few minutes after they checked it out, I got a call. Wrong trail-head. They started riding through city streets until I found them and got behind them until we reached the location of the right trail-head. We met up again in West Newton at the next Trailhead, at the Trailside Cafe. Great place, even if they had run out of Ranch dressing for the day. We met local activists dealing with fracking in their area, as well as a planned power plant very close to other facilities emitting pollution. Officials were only considering individual amounts of pollution deemed acceptable, not cumulative pollution in the area and its affect on the health of sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, friends, parents, and pets. Each pollution emitter could be deemed ‘acceptable’ if only their amount of pollution were considered, but the people had to breath it all. I can add another grassroots, environmental group to my list: Yough Communities Conserving our Air, Rivers, Environment (Yough Communities C.A.R.E.) (https://kassandra.earth/). We spoke with them about their concerns and endeavors along with members of the Mountain Watershed Association, who not only protect and restore place in the Youghiogheny Watershed, but also help grassroots groups get started with funding, fundraising and other endeavors. (https://mtwatershed.com/)

We must have talked (and ate and drank) for an hour and a half, taking up unused chairs from other tables so about a dozen of us could fit around a table normally seating six. But it was all good. At the end, a woman from a nearby table walked over and thanked us, and told us to keep doing what we’re doing. There are times when you need to hear that; days when things don’t go so well, and you need to remember that encouragement. It doesn’t always come from standing still. You’ve got to meet other people, and they’ve got to meet you. We exchanged contact information and then soon after, sent each other emails to follow up on advice about zoning changes, good lawyers, grant opportunities and just encouragement to each other.

The Tour de PAC did not have a peloton of 170+ riders (like the Tour de France). The days I was with them, it was only three or four. While more would be cool; that’s enough. It was not the same riders both days, some were through-riders, but some could only be there a day. Some nights were in the home of a friend, but at times, they camped. They made-do with what they had, but they made it work. They recorded Environmental Impact Statements to take to the Governor and Legislature in Harrisburg at the Pennsylvania Climate Convergence. In the process, they brought a lot of stories to light, brought people and groups together in ways that were mutually beneficial. They brought encouragement to people who want their suffering to be heard and to be relieved.

My part was only two days of the Tour de PAC. I’m sorry I couldn’t drive as an escort for more; work and family are important as well. But it’s essential to do events like this. And it’s hard. In the planning, there are so many times when it seems like carrying a tall stack of tittering dishes. Housing plans fall through in one place, but work out in another. One rider has to cancel; someone else comes for a day. The weather and other factors slow down the cyclists so they have to try to reschedule with reporters. It’s a lot to do, and Michael Bagdes-Canning is the guy who held it all together. He needs to get some rest now that the Tour has concluded in Harrisburg, but I’m already looking forward to a Tour de PAC in the future. I hope each of you will look for the next one and join it, either to ride, drive, provide housing or just meet and get to know the cyclists and make the connections that come with such an adventure.