Ensuring Environmental Health in Postindustrial Cities Workshop Summary (2003) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3. The Changing Face of Pittsburgh: A Historical Perspective
3. The Changing Face of Pittsburgh: A Historical Perspective
Pages 13-19
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 13... ...
At her worst, nothing darker, dingier, or more dispiriting can be imagined." Herbert Spencer, the great British philosopher, who was brought to Pittsburgh by his admirer Andrew Carnegie, put it more succinctly: "Six months' residence in Pittsburgh would justify suicide." What did Pittsburgh actually look like?
|
From page 14... ...
At the turn of the century, the city built hundreds of sewer outlets that discharged raw sewage directly into all three of its rivers. Pittsburgh was by no means unique in this regard, but the result was that here, as elsewhere, people put their raw sewage into the water bodies that went right by their door, which often meant that populations downstreams were drinking water polluted with sewage.
|
From page 15... ...
, developed in the period after World War II, brought on line its sewage treatment plant. Nevertheless, the legacy of the combined-sewer-system decision continues to affect us very much today: during a rainstorm the untreated domestic wastewater, together with the stormwater, bypasses the treatment plant and goes into the river, frequently causing the county health department to issue warning of fecal contamination.
|
From page 16... ...
Not until recently was the relationship between smoke and air pollution and human health directly addressed. Most smoke-related questions revolved around the issue of "nuisance." It made homes dirtier, it increased the price of cleaning, and department stores couldn't keep goods clean.
|
From page 17... ...
Pittsburgh did much the same in 1941. The war interfered with the implementation of this law, but there was a strong push in the postwar period led by the Allegheny Committee on Community Development, to pick up the pace with the media and women's clubs driving home the lesson of the ill effects of smoke.
|
From page 18... ...
During World War II, U-boats were sinking oil tankers off the Gulf coast just about as quickly as they could leave their ports, and the United States was faced with the problem of getting oil up to northern industrial areas like Pittsburgh. So it built two large pipelines: Big Inch and Little Inch.
|
From page 19... ...
Much of the pressure on local industry for air-pollution reductionfor instance, in pushing for enforcement of the laws was applied by a group called GASP (Group Against Smog and Pollution) , again with women dominating.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.