Transitions - Sustainable Design: The Science of Sustainability and Green Engineering - page 90

Donora, Pennsylvania 4

After World War II, the United States was concerned with getting the economy
and the American way of life back on track. We wanted to produce more of
what Americans wanted, including cars, airplanes, roads, toys, food, and all the
trappings of the American Dream. The industrial machine was more than happy
to oblige. Unfortunately, it was during this growth spurt that we tasted the
ill-effects of single-minded industrial development.
In 1948, the United States experienced its first major air pollution catastrophe,
in Donora, Pennsylvania. Contaminant releases from a number of industries,
including a sulfuric acid plant, a steel mill, and a zinc production plant, became
trapped in a valley by a temperature inversion and produced an unbreathable
mixture of fog and pollution (see Fig. 3.3). Six thousand people suffered illnesses
ranging from sore throats to nausea. There were 20 deaths in three days. Sulfur
dioxide (SO 2 ) was estimated to reach levels as high as 5500 gm − 3 . Compare

µ

g − 3 this to the current U.S. health standard of 365 µ in the ambient air (24-hr.

average).
This particular form of sulfur is highly toxic, but many other compounds
of sulfur are essential components of biological systems. In the wrong place at
the wrong time, these compounds are hazardous to health, welfare, and the
environment (see the discussion box “Sulfur and Nitrogen Compound: The
Form Makes the Harm”).
A common feature of many air pollution episodes is thermal inversion. In the
air, meteorology helps to determine opportunities to control the atmospheric
transport of contaminants. For example, industries are often located near each
other, concentrating the release of pollutants. Cities and industrial centers have
often been located near water bodies. This means that they are inordinately
located in river valleys and other depressions. This increases the likelihood of
occurrences of ground-based inversions, elevated inversions, valley winds, shore
breezes, and city heat islands (see Fig. 3.3). When this happens, as it did in
Donora, the pollutants become locked into air masses with little or no chance
of moving out of the respective areas. Thus, concentrations of the pollutants can
quickly pose substantial risks to public health and the environment.
For a town of only 14,000 people, the number of deaths in such a short time was
unprecedented; in fact, the town did not have enough coffins to accommodate
the burials. The Donora incident is important because it was the first dramatic
evidence that unchecked pollution was an American problem. It was among the
first real warnings against unbridled, nonintegrative decision making. Pollution
had morphed from merely a nuisance and an aesthetic problem to an urgent
public health concern in North America and the world.
The green engineering lesson is the need for wise site selection of facilities
that generate, process, and store contaminants as the first step in preventing