Dust at demolition site stirs complaints in city

Mt. Lebanon commissioners on Tuesday were confronted by a Pittsburgh City Council member about allegations of toxic dust emissions coming from a demolition site near the city’s Brookline neighborhood.

“This has been going on for weeks and we’ve seen little or no action” from Mt. Lebanon officials, Pittsburgh Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak told commissioners.

Ms. Rudiak’s 4th District abuts the former DePaul Institute on Castlegate Avenue in Mt. Lebanon, where buildings are being demolished to make way for a new, 60-unit senior housing complex.

Residents living near the site have complained about dust and debris and said the dust is making some of them sick.

“My home is 50 feet away from this site,” said city resident Angela Gaito-Lagnese, who cited studies indicating that buildings built before 1978 can emit dangerous lead and toxic particles if proper dust suppression methods aren’t used during demolition.

“We’ve begun to choke in our homes,” said Ms. GaitoLagnese, who criticized commissioners for not responding to her requests for assistance.

Ms. Rudiak said the Allegheny County Health Department has been called to the site more than six times and said it will fine the demolition company, Continental Enterprises. The site is owned by Residential Resources.

Representatives from Continental could not be reached for comment, but Jeff Lengel, CEO of Residential Resources, said his company is aware of the complaints and that staff members have visited the site. However, he said, because the general contractor, Sota Construction, hired Continental as a subcontractor, there’s little he can currently do to rectify the situation.

“I know there’s a huge firestorm about the dust,” he said. “We are kind of sitting out as a third party in terms of the activity going on.”

Ms. Rudiak asked commissioners to appoint a liaison for residents, and the commissioners said they would ask assistant municipal manager Ian McMeans to act as a go-between.

Mt. Lebanon manager Keith McGill said the municipality doesn’t have air quality requirements as part of its demolition permitting process.