Set at Irvin Plant
The fish, as well as 300 volunteers are expected to converge on the property as part of the sixth annual Earth Day observance at the Irvin Plant of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works.
The day will start with an 8 a.m. ceremony dedicating the wildlife habitat, which includes a new half-acre pond developed near the contractor’s gate
Robin Birk, department manager of Industrial Hygiene, said it took nearly two years to construct the pond.
“This was all woods two years ago,” she explained while walking to the pond. Volunteers from the company had trees and stumps removed, imported clay to line the pond and created inlets and outfall for the pond’s water flow.
There are some 80 active employee volunteers, who, like Birk, spend time during lunch, after work and on weekends maintaining the wildlife habitat.
U.S. Steel Corp., has funded the project.
Birk said the idea was developed through the plant. Now, Irvin, like each of U.S. Steel’s other six plants in the country, is a Corporate Certified Wildlife Habitat. Getting that certification, Birk said, is not easy. Losing it, however, is, simply by not maintaining wildlife to standards.
Last year, Irvin was named one of four finalists in the Corporate Wildlife Habitat of the Year competition.
“That’s like getting an academy award nomination,” Birk explained.
Wildlife habitat is maintained by the employees who volunteer their time and energy. Those people along with their family members, supplier companies and a variety of community youth organizations are expected at the plant tomorrow.
After the dedication ceremony, they will put “finishing touches” on the pond, by planting more than 40 varieties of wetlands foliage in and around the water as well as stock the pond with fish. They also will plant and tend flower beds and other areas in the habitat. Trash removal along Phillip Murray Road also is on the day’s agenda.
The wildlife habitat and pond were created to expand the plant’s educational partnership program with the surrounding community and increase the biodiversity of the plant.
Those involved with the project are hopeful the area will become an attractive environment for wildfowl.
In addition to providing literature and information during tours the plant offers of the site, Scott Henderson of the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission said his agency also offers advice on how to attract more animals to the wildlife habitat.
The wildlife habitat has become a classroom of sorts for some local schools that choose to teach biology classes there, Birk said,
In addition, Irvin has just entered a cooperative agreement with Community College of Allegheny County South Campus to create a nature trail in the habitat area.
The college has agreed to send a naturalist to help plan the trail, Birk said.
Steve Smith, vice president of United Steelworkers of America Local 2227 stressed the importance of union and management working together on the project.
A project that the children especially enjoy, he said, is the Bluebird Landlord Program.
Birk explained that under the program, each family has a box, and the blue birds are considered tenants. The families are responsible for maintaining the box and determining how many birds are hatched there each year.
Last year, she said, the wildlife habitat at Irvin hatched more than 450 blue birds.
“People think steel mills are dirty and nature can’t co-exist with the mill,” said Ernie Glenn, U.S. Steel spokesman. “They (the workers) enjoy proving it can.”Irvin was certified in 1991 as a wildlife habitat by the Wildlife Habitat Council in Silver Spring, Md.
“Each year, Irvin’s wildlife habitat has been enlarged and enhanced through the fine volunteer efforts of our employees, their families and a number of supplier companies and community groups,” said David H. Lhor, general manager of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works. “The wetland pond will be an exciting addition to the environment in and around the mill and will enable us to enhance the Mon Valley’s environmental educational partnership programs with local schools.”Assisting with the wetland project were members of USWA Locals 2227 and 4090. Also involved in the wetland construction were Whistler Construction, which did the inlet and outfall trenching; Emery Tree Service, which removed trees and stumps; Ecotune Environmental Consultants, which designed the pond; C.J. Langenfelder & Son, which did excavating and grading; Power Piping Co., which identified and marked underground utilities; and Allegheny Land Trust, a conservation group that provided trees for planting.