Luke Zidek was already perspiring since the sun was so strong in Duquesne. He put on a pair of fluorescent orange boots and covered his mouth and nose with a respirator to isolate himself from the outside world within a vivid blue hazmat suit.
The two guys moved in unison toward a black barrel that was lying on its side in a pool of dangerous chemicals after he gave his companion the OK signal. They collaborated to cover the leaky spout with a wrench and then securely encased the entire barrel in a plastic tank. Just as scheduled, a stopwatch clicked.
On July 19, in Duquesne, Luke Zidek (right) and Brandon Sample (left) lead a hazmat training exercise.
This was only a training exercise on top of a defunct steel mill. Water was the only substance that leaked. Zidek is one of more than 250 persons who have received training through regional initiatives since 2016 to remove toxic waste and restore brownfields, or abandoned post-industrial areas. Brownfields in Southwestern Pennsylvania’s hills and along the riverbanks, which have long been home to industry, are ready for cleanup, repurposing, and reuse.
The majority of any state outside of New Jersey and California, Pennsylvania has the most Superfund sites—90—on the EPA’s National Priorities List. In the state, there are more over 1,300 brownfields, 276 of which are concentrated in Allegheny County. And even if Appalachia’s industrial identity is fading, new brownfields are still being built every year. Cleaning up East Palestine, Ohio, where a freight train carrying extremely hazardous vinyl chloride derailed and exploded in February, may take decades. And it will take many more years to find the scattered remnants of our coal past.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed by Congress in 2021, provided an unprecedented $1.5 billion countrywide for projects relating to brownfields. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s brownfield grant funds saw a considerable boost as a result. Each of the two local grantees, Landforce, which focuses on workforce development and land stewardship, and social services agency Auberle, earned $500,000 in 2022 to help train a new generation of experts who would work to clean up the region’s industrial disasters.
On July 19, Luke Zidek fixes a respirator on his face while undergoing hazmat training in Duquesne.
a new profession
The 44-year-old Zidek emerged from the decontamination ponds that had been put up in the Duquesne parking lot. He was wearing the suit for the first time, and the heat and claustrophobia were starting to have an impact. On the afternoon of July, he added, panting, “I almost had a panic attack.
As a military police officer for three years in the Marine Corps, Zidek worked with dogs that sniff out drugs. Later, as a private contractor, he spent time in Baghdad and Kurdistan searching for bombs. After falling through a window in 2002 and lacerating his ulnar nerve, artery, and six tendons, he was medically released. He remarked, “It almost killed me.” Being a crippled veteran now, Zidek is pursuing a new job in industry cleanup.
The need for brownfield work is expected to soar in light of climate change and a national transition away from carbon-intensive energy and industries. According to Auberle’s analysis of just five area firms, more than 4,000 regional employment opportunities in the remediation industry are anticipated by 2027, according to Abby Wolensky, the director of the organization’s Employment Institute. The unusually high density of brownfield sites in Allegheny County contributes to some of that need.
The infrastructure funding increased the amount of EPA awards that organizations like Auberle and Landforce could receive from $200,000 to $500,000. The boost in financing allowed Landforce to offer participants an hourly wage and Auberle to treble the number of program participants. Both groups had previously received EPA grants.
On July 19, in Duquesne, Auberle trainees receive respirator wear instruction.
The Mon Valley, “which tends to face some of the worst environmental disparities,” according to Wolensky, is home to the majority of the participants in Auberle’s recruitment efforts in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. A large portion of the riverside has an industrial past, stretching between Hazelwood and Homestead, Duquesne and Clairton.
“They’re helping to revitalize their own communities,” said Wolensky, by placing locals to work in areas where industry has had an influence.
Since 2016, 117 persons have completed Auberle’s brownfield training program, and 113 of them are currently employed in career-track positions performing brownfield remediation work, with an average hourly compensation of $18.68. Twelve additional students, including Zidek, graduated from Auberle’s program in July; ten of them have already been hired by nearby brownfield remediation businesses.
On July 19, students from Auberle do a mock decontamination at the location of a defunct steel factory in Duquesne.
Zidek will concentrate on asbestos and lead removal at his new position at PRISM Spectrum, an environmental services firm in Export, where he makes $27 an hour and has joined the local union. His expertise will be necessary in situations like the Cheswick Generating Station, which had to undergo nearly a year of asbestos abatement and remediation before to being dismantled earlier this year.
In Brownsville, where he received his high school diploma, Zidek remembers the old pumphouse beside the Monongahela River: “Asbestos all through it,” he recalled. I believe it’s fantastic that they have these funding available to clean up and develop these communities. He informed two Veterans Administration employees about the program, and they intend to enroll in it in October. His next goal is to receive training to become a supervisor.
“I gained the knowledge necessary to recognize the markings on chemicals that are being transported through our neighborhoods, such as on trains. I could identify whether it was an explosive, a gas, or a caustic, said Zidek. “I’ve worked as a chef, military police officer, and security before. I now have a completely new career field.
On July 20, Marvin Carmon (front) and the other members of the Landforce team level a trail in the Seldom Seen Greenway in Beechview. This summer, Landforce constructed 1.2 miles of paths on the greenway while removing invasive plants and working to enhance the ecological health.
utilizing the trails
A group of approximately 20 people in fluorescent shirts and helmets entered the woods a few miles up the river, deep beneath the hilltop community of Beechview. They brought shovels and picks. The Landforce team was constructing a system of pathways and bringing the long-depleted woods back into equilibrium.
Director of land stewardship for Landforce, Thomas Guentner, traversed thickets of invasive knotweed on foot one morning in mid-July while avoiding old construction debris that had been deposited there.
Guentner stated that the project is changing the way we view brownfields: “No part of the city was left unscathed by its industrial past.”
Rickey Hebron Jr., a Landforce supervisor, crosses Sawmill Run on July 20 to reach new trails in Seldom Seen Greenway.
At Seldom Seen Greenway, exotic species has taken hold of the slopes due to poor forest management and years of illegal dumping, endangering the ecological health of the area. By the end of the summer, Landforce had tamed thickets of vines and dug out bricks. The team constructed 1.2 miles of new pathways to link the residential Beechview neighborhood to Brashear High School and then to the Route 19 greenway access. Landforce will plant over 100 native trees this fall, and over time, the greenway will develop into one of Pittsburgh’s newest parks.
Guentner alluded to additional chances for recreation and establishing urban linkages to nature as reasons why building trails helps mobility. By clearing invasive species, native flora can develop and benefit the environment as a whole. The demand for well-managed, resilient urban forests is only increasing as Pittsburgh adapts to climate change and battles extreme rainfall, flooding, and landslides.
On July 20, a Landforce crewman plows a trail through Seldom Seen Greenway in Beechview.
“Each software may differ slightly from the next. And that’s really the appeal of these funds, according to Gianna Rosati, senior project officer for the EPA’s brownfields program. “You need to show the backlog of issues in your community, and obviously the Pittsburgh area has that clear need and issue,” she said, adding that in order to obtain the cash. So even though they don’t perform soil assessments or remediation, what they’re doing undoubtedly affects brownfields.
Due to its past involvement in the production of steel, Hazelwood, where similar work by Landforce was undertaken, fits a more conventional definition of a brownfield.
On July 19, Luke Zidek (right) and Brandon Sample (left) smile after completing hazmat training with Professional Training Associates’ Greg Ashman.
altering people and the environment
Zidek struggled with PTSD and drug addiction as a result of his service in the military. “I struggle with things,” he admitted. However, the Auberle and Landforce programs are made to assist people in getting beyond obstacles to employment like a history of incarceration, addiction, homelessness, or a lack of demonstrable work experience.
People from all backgrounds participate in the programs at Landforce and Auberle.
When asked why he joined the Landforce crew in July, Homewood resident Marvin Carmon said it was to learn new skills that he could then pass on to his own neighborhood. He replied, “We have a lot of acreage back in Homewood that’s not being cared for. In order for kids like his twin boys to enjoy the outdoors in their own backyard, he envisions constructing a network of pathways there as well.
On July 20, Andre Reihl removes vines from a new trail that he and the Landforce team constructed this summer in Seldom Seen Greenway.
Andre Reihl joined the Landforce team after completing the horticulture course at the Bidwell Training Center in Manchester. He shared his desire to create pollinator and rain gardens in his hometown of Hazelwood, saying, “I’m hoping it gets me back into the green space.” “I want to use it as my career.”
With picks, shovels, and rakes, the crew smoothed and shaped the trail’s curves by the time it was late in the day.
A former crew member who is now a supervisor yelled out, “Look around,” After the crew had carved through more than a mile of dense forest and invasive vines, he turned his head to look back toward where they had started. Seldom Park was built by everyone.
On July 20, a Landforce team member clipped vines along 1.2 miles of new path in Beechview’s Seldom Seen Greenway while wading through a thicket of knotweed.
Photographs by Quinn Glabicki.
