Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato today plans to announce the names of those who will be on his Environmental Air Quality Task Force.

The 13-member group, which Onorato proposed in April, will review the county’s air quality program and make recommendations on how to better improve regional air quality, increase service and find operating efficiencies. Those recommendations could be ready in six months, he said.

“I want them, basically, to look at the department. … I’m giving them free rein to make any decisions to change it,” Onorato said.

The task force will be chaired by Bob Lewis of Orbital Engineering and advised by Chip Babst of Babst, Calland, Clements and Zomnir law firm, Onorato said.

It will include governmental figures such as McKeesport Mayor James Brewster and Allegheny County Councilwoman Joan Cleary, academics from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, and representatives from Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), Sustainable Pittsburgh, Allegheny Conference on Community Development and Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future, among others, he said.

“The chief executive recognizes that solutions to environmental problems are really very interdisciplinary,” said Deborah Lange, a task force member and executive director of Carnegie Mellon University’s Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research. “I think he recognizes the complexity and how it requires … a number of different ways of thinking.”

Onorato announced the formation of the task force when he announced plans this spring to hire 11 new workers to staff the county’s Air Quality Program.

At that time, Onorato said the county would take steps to eliminate a backlog of permits, update air-monitoring technology and aim to process all installation and operating permits within 100 days of application. He said the county has accomplished — or is in the process of accomplishing — those goals.

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