Hazelwood waste proposal brings call for ‘environmental justice’ and rezoning

Terri Shields, founder and executive director of Hazelwood’s JADA House International, on Aug. 15, 2023, at the Spartan Community Center of Hazelwood. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)

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by Tory Basile, Pittsburgh’s Public Source

Hazelwood’s riverfront could be rezoned following outcry from neighbors about a nearby recycling plant that’s applied for permission to include a garbage transfer station. 

Pittsburgh City Councilor Barb Warwick said Hazelwood residents told her the recycling facility, Republic Services, brought rodents, unpleasant odors and noise — all within 300 feet of where people live and work. After the plant applied for a transfer station permit this year, residents worried adding garbage to the equation would worsen those conditions. 

Neighbors have petitioned the state Department of Environmental Protection to block Republic Services’ pending permit. DEP’s public comment period ended Sept. 10, according to an agency spokesperson, though it is conducting informal outreach to the community and “may also hold a public hearing if it determines one would aid its decision.” DEP’s website indicates that it aims to make a decision by Nov. 19.

Warwick said the issue led her to examine Hazelwood’s zoning more broadly. In July, Warwick sponsored a proposal to rezone Hazelwood’s riverfront, and presented that proposal to the City Planning Commission on Sept. 9.

If passed, the ordinance would rezone the area along the Monongahela River on the city’s southeast side. Currently, the land is zoned for general industrial use, meaning it’s reserved for structures like manufacturing plants, warehouses, salvage yards, “hazardous operations” (like arsenals or hazardous waste disposal) and solid waste incinerators. Rezoning would instead reserve the area for homes, grocery stores, businesses and schools. 

Republic Services wrote in a statement that it is currently operating the Hazelwood site only as a recycling center, emphasizing recent and planned investments to upgrade the facility. “Every upgrade has been made with safety, community well-being and responsible operations in mind,” the statement said.

The company argues rezoning isn’t necessary because the property is already permitted for waste transfer, and it pledges to engage with residents and community leaders.

As Hazelwood shifts from a steelmaking hub to a neighborhood eyed for research, housing and community projects, tensions over redevelopment have grown.

Warwick told Public Source the move to rezone felt “preventative,” especially given the neighborhood’s growth and the number of recent developments in the area. 

The purpose? “To keep new industry from coming that could be harmful to the community,” Warwick said during the Planning Commission meeting Tuesday. “I wasn’t necessarily thinking about what could be there, but just what we don’t want to be there.”

An opportunity for environmental justice

The crux of the rezoning ordinance is environmental justice, Warwick said. That’s the concept that people and communities have the right to safe, healthy environments, environmental protection and involvement in related decisions.

In many parts of the country, zoning places heavy industry near lower-income neighborhoods, and increases the potential for health risks for those neighbors. 

“That zoning is left over from the Pittsburgh of yore where we would, you know, just put big industrial facilities, just stick them in low-income neighborhoods and right on the river because, ‘Who cares about polluting our rivers?’” Warwick said. 

Warwick said zoning is one of the first issues Pittsburgh residents will have to grapple with as the community grows. 

Terri Shields is a lifelong Hazelwood resident. Shields, president and CEO of JADA House International, said she supports the zoning change because of what it could mean: a healthy community. 

A steel mill used to reside along the edge of the river, where Hazelwood Green is today. Shields said the mill was “toxic” to the community. Steel pollution has been linked to health problems and premature death for those living around steel facilities. Shields said she believes growing up near the mill — and the pollutants it released in the neighborhood — caused health problems for her and her neighbors. 

“I’m not an expert on it, but I have asthma, I have lupus, some people have cancer, some people have succumbed to the cancer,” Shields said. 

Though steel mills may have left the area decades ago, Hazelwood is still dealing with the environmental impacts of heavy industry. Shields, a nonprofit Hazelwood Initiative board member, she’s heard from several neighbors who do not want the recycling plant in their community. As the neighborhood develops, Shields said she wants to ensure community members are involved in the conversations about its future. 

In its statement, a representative for Republic Services addressed the impacts the plant has on the neighborhood and its plans for the future. Though a waste transfer center remains a future possibility, the representative wrote that its “priority right now is bringing the facility up to our standards and focusing on recycling operations.”

“We take pride in responsibly managing our facilities and being a trusted partner in the communities we serve,” the statement read. “We are committed to engaging with residents and local businesses to discuss operations and community benefits, and have reached out to the Hazelwood Initiative to explore meaningful ways we can support the area.”

The statement detailed a $2.8 million investment to “modernize the property” and another $1.4 million planned for next year. “Our improvements include cleaning the facility, installing perimeter fencing and improving roadways.”

Though the company is at odds with the attempt to rezone, the statement went on to say that the company welcomes the opportunity for engagement on its facility improvements.

The zoning ordinance is slated for a hearing at the City Planning Commission on Sept. 23, after which the commission can make a recommendation to the Pittsburgh City Council, which will make the final vote. 

The commission is also expected, on Sept. 23, to hear testimony and vote on plans for the Eliza Street Apartments, by Module Design, which would, over three phases, bring 126 housing units — including 84 priced to be affordable to households of modest means — to the center of Hazelwood Green.

Tory Basile is an editorial intern at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at tory@publicsource.org.

This article first appeared on Pittsburgh’s Public Source and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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