One year after a fire at the Metalico plant on Neville Island, residents from the area delivered a petition to Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald asking for increased health department oversight over the scrap yard.

The April 2021 fire at Neville Recycling burned for hours before crews brought the flames under control, sending thick smoke and other debris billowing into the air.

The group, Allegheny County Clean Air Now, presented a petition at the county council meeting Tuesday asking for more safeguards against pollution, including: increased inspections of Metalico by the health department; rules to stop the company from operating “in a way that creates this air pollution” and contributes to industrial accidents like the 2021 fire; and establish policies that would alert residents about incidents like the 2021 fire.

The letter, signed by ACCAN president Karen Grzywinski and around 200 residents, said residents in nearby Emsworth are “subjected to air pollution that smells like oil, gas and burning plastic, rubber and metal and that gives them headaches and makes them nauseous.”

The group alleged more than 350 pollution events from the scrap yard over the past four years, including the fire in which “large clouds of toxic smoke blew into neighboring communities.”

Metalico representatives could not immediately be reached.

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