Manufacturing Brownfields: The Case of Neville Island, Pennsylvania

Abstract

Manufacturing Brownfields: The Case of Neville Island, Pennsylvania HUGH GORMAN The steep hills, plush vegetation, and clean air of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, often surprise first-time visitors to the city. A century ago, industrial facilities and railroads spread like a vine through the valleys of the Ohio, Monongahela, and Allegheny Rivers, occupying whatever level land lay available. Today, Pittsburgh still thrives as an important urban center, but much of the heavy industry that previ­ ously dominated its economy has disappeared. In some areas, the main legacy of this industrial past is brownfields, old industrial sites whose redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environ­ mental concerns. The history of Neville Island, a heavily industrial­ ized strip of land in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, offers a well­ framed case study of the industrial, political, and social changes that produced such sites—as well as the burden that they now represent to the communities in which they are located.1 This river island—officially, Neville Township on Neville Island— is now home to a “Superfund” waste site, a number of underutilized or empty industrial facilities, and several aging chemical processing plants. Those who have an interest in the fate of these old industrial sites include the residents of Neville Island, federal and state envi­ ronmental protection agencies, industrial firms operating on the isDr . Gorman is assistant professor ofenvironmental policy and history at Michigan Technological University. He thanksjoel Tarr for his advice and comments, the past students ofJoel Tarr who collected various pieces of data about the island, David Hounshell and the students in his research seminar for their criticisms and com­ ments,Judith Beach for her assistance in estimating the waste streams, and the Tech­ nology and Culture referees for their many helpful suggestions. 1 One can view this case history of Neville Island as a scaled-down community study with a 20th-century focus and an environmental emphasis. By community study I mean a study about how changes in production technology during the 19th century af­ fected geographically defined and work-centered communities; examples include Merritt Roe Smith, HarpersFerry Armory and the New Technology: The Challenge ofChange (Ithaca, N.Y., 1977); Anthony Wallace, Rockdale: The Growth ofan American Village in the Early Industrial Revolution (New York, 1981); and Judith McGaw, Most Wonderful Machine: Mechanization and Social Change (Princeton, 1987).© 1997 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/97/3803-0001$02.00 539 540 Hugh Gorman Fig. 1.—View of Neville Island from the northeast. (Author’s photo.) land, firms considering moving to the island, real estate developers, and the residents ofneighboring communities. This study places the land of Neville Island, the focus of present concerns, in perspective with past decisions and actions, serving as a lens through which to view the interaction between industrial practices and environmental policies over the course of the 20th century. Neville Island divides the Ohio River into two channels six miles downstream from the point at which the Allegheny and Mononga­ hela Rivers meet to form the Ohio (see figs. 1 and 2). River traffic approaching the five-mile long island must take the northern or “front” channel, where a lock allows barges and other craft to pass from one pool of the Ohio to another. The narrower “back” chan­ nel is blocked by a dam, two automobile bridges, and a railroad bridge. As one passes the island, signs of heavy industry—coal and ore yards, old coke ovens and blast furnaces, a towering cement kiln, storage tanks, distillation towers, large industrial facilities, and an abandoned shipyard—dominate the landscape.Just before the west­ ern tip of the island, a residential area containing modest but com­ fortable homes comes into sight. Beyond that, at the very tip, lie thirty-two acres designated by the United States Environmental Pro­ tection Agency (EPA) as a priority hazardous waste site—a Su­ perfund site. In 1973, the Exxon Corporation proposed purchasing the land from its industrial owner for use as a storage facility, but residents, not wanting a tank farm located so close to their homes, opposed the plan and eventually won in Pennsylvania Supreme Court.2 The owner of the land...