How would you describe the environmental conditions of hell? In Dante\u2019s \u201cInferno,\u201d each of the nine circles is marked by its own punishment, each set in a hostile, unlivable landscape. But in Pennsylvania, you don\u2019t need medieval literature to imagine the underworld. The source material is all around us.<\/p>\n
Air too toxic to breathe. Water that poisons you. Ground that burns and caves beneath your feet. This isn\u2019t fiction. It\u2019s the legacy of industry \u2014 where fuels that once powered prosperity now poison the people left behind.<\/p>\n
Pollution is expected in any city, but in Philadelphia, it\u2019s pervasive. Chemical spills, gas leaks, homes exploding. No longer anomalies, explosions have become part of city life.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia risks becoming a skyline built on burning ruins.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t abstract for me. I grew up in West Philly. At 13, crossing the Passyunk Avenue Bridge to school, I feared the South Philly refinery\u2019s smoke. It\u2019s going to blow, I\u2019d think. In 2013, it released more than 350 tons of air toxins \u2014 benzene, sulfuric acid, hydrogen cyanide. The city\u2019s largest air polluter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Caused by the ignition of a noxious vapor cloud, the blast came in 2019<\/a>. A vessel was launched across the Schuylkill<\/a>, and five workers were injured, with benzene levels remaining dangerously high for months<\/a>.<\/p>\n In February, a gas main rupture forced an evacuation at Central High<\/a>, my alma mater. Philadelphia Gas Works manages 3,000 miles of pipeline \u2014 half of it outdated cast iron or bare steel, some over 100 years old<\/a>. PGW is tied to at least 13 deaths since 1979<\/a>. Yet, it funds a lobbying group that pushed the Trump administration to cut clean energy funding<\/a>. So Philadelphia ratepayers bankroll both their poisoning and its political defense.<\/p>\n Philly is just one front. Underground mine fires plague Pennsylvania\u2019s former anthracite region. Of 11,249 abandoned mines<\/a>, nearly 10,000 still pose health and safety risks. Residents report illness and backyard heat vents<\/a> \u2014 only for the state Department of Environmental Protection to say there\u2019s nothing wrong<\/a>.<\/p>\n Journalists like Rob Manch<\/a> and Kaylee Lindenmuth<\/a> have shown how residents are forced to self-monitor while the state delays action \u2014 that is, unless a coal company wants a blasting permit.<\/p>\n This can\u2019t continue. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called phasing out coal the single most important step<\/a> to avert crisis. But Pennsylvania still clings to coal \u2014 economically, culturally, politically.<\/p>\n The costs of fossil fuel dependence are everywhere. In July 2024, carcinogens were found in the soil at Bartram\u2019s Garden<\/a>, leaking from a defunct oil terminal. No city alerts. No signage. Just like the 2023 latex spill that tainted a tributary of the Delaware<\/a>, residents got only cursory guidance.<\/p>\n My mother never let us drink tap water. \u201cEverything in America is poison,\u201d she\u2019d say. I used to roll my eyes. I don\u2019t anymore.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just neglect. It\u2019s a pattern: environmental deterioration, bureaucratic retreat, displacement, then reinvestment. Collapse clears the way for redevelopment, just not for those already living there.<\/p>\n Under Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a>, 70 affordable homes in University City were demolished for luxury labs and condos<\/a>. Her HOME initiative touts \u201caffordable luxury<\/a>.\u201d But it\u2019s clear who that\u2019s for \u2014 and who gets left behind.<\/p>\n The rise of a new speculative elite depends on the collapse of working-class communities \u2014 on disrepair, vacancy, and silence. When land devalues and political resistance erodes, redevelopment rushes in, cloaked in the language of \u201cinnovation.\u201d The Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery site, once a source of poison for Black and working-class Philadelphians, is now reborn as the Bellwether District<\/a> \u2014 a warehouse hub sold as opportunity, built on ruin.<\/p>\n I love Philadelphia \u2014 but not blindly. I love its history, its people, its gardens and museums. When outsiders criticize it, I get defensive: \u201cYou don\u2019t know her like I do!\u201d<\/p>\n But like Los Angeles, where capital and cars privatized everything, Philadelphia risks becoming a skyline built on burning ruins.<\/p>\n I remember the rage I felt reading a fellow University of Pennsylvania<\/a> student\u2019s post: \u201cI love Philly but could never raise a family here.\u201d What made them say that? The visible homelessness? The violence they hear about but rarely face? The pollution?<\/p>\n When I tell friends about gas leaks and explosions, they urge me to leave. \u201cCome to New York!\u201d \u201cTry London!\u201d But what about the people who can\u2019t just leave?<\/p>\n What happens to a city when the people thoughtful enough to notice its wounds decide to go?<\/p>\n I ask myself that all the time \u2014 not just about Philly, but the country. Do I leave for my own sanity, or stay and fight?<\/p>\n Industry veterans scoff at change. \u201cThis is just how it is.\u201d But that\u2019s not true.<\/p>\n Cincinnati\u2019s Duke Energy launched a plan in 2015 to replace 1,200 miles of high-risk mains<\/a>. Memphis began replacing cast iron lines in the 1990s<\/a>, cutting leaks by more than half. Omaha, Neb., replaced 243 miles of mains over 10 years and aims to finish by 2027<\/a>. These projects aren\u2019t cheap, but they show that with regulation and investment, aging infrastructure can be fixed.<\/p>\n