Orientation (proximity)…
Map 1 and Map 2 in the “Images 1” section of the website show a vicinity map of the City of Johnstown and a boundary map showing where Middle Taylor Township is situated. Maps 3 and 4 in the “Images 1” section of the website are Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) road maps showing somewhat current township street names and route numbers. Maps 5 and 6 in the “Images 1” section of the website show the general topography of the Hinckston Run stream valley up along Honan Avenue.
Maps 7, 8, and 9 in the “Images 1” section of the website show the location of the neighborhood where I lived on the “Hill” in the Benshoff Hill/Valley View section of southern Middle Taylor Township and the relationship of where I lived compared to the location of both the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (BSC) Rosedale coke plant and the Riders Dump (Rosedale) Disposal Area.
The ring maps provided on Maps 10 and 11 in the “Images 1” section of the website show that most of the subject (site) area as described in central and southern Middle Taylor Township was within a 2 mile radius of the Riders Dump (Rosedale) Disposal Area dump site and it’s associated contaminants.
As you can see from all of these maps, we lived very, very close to the coke plant. We lived less than 1/2 of a mile to the northwest and above it vertically. So emissions from the stack were pretty much at/near eye level for us. The Benshoff Hill/Valley View area and the central and southern portions of Middle Taylor Township were very close in horizontal distance to both the Bethlehem Steel Corporation Rosedale coke plant and it’s related Riders Dump (Rosedale) Disposal Area where coal refuse and slag wastes were dumped in an uncontrolled manner for several decades and the better part of a century.
This is just a representative photograph showing air pollution from an industrial activity. It is not the Bethlehem Steel Corporation Rosedale coke plant (location unknown). However, if you look at the family photograph with the coke plant in the background in the “Introduction 1” section of this website, there is really not much of a difference.
Orientation (elevation)…
Maps 12 through 15 in the “Images 2” section of the website show various topographical and profile (cross-section) maps of the Benshoff Hill/Valley View section of southern Middle Taylor Township and the elevation relationship between where we (and others) lived compared to the Bethlehem Steel Corporation (BSC) Rosedale coke plant, the Hinckston Run stream valley, and the Riders Dump (Rosedale) Disposal Area.
Map 16 and 17 and Photographs 1 through 5 in the “Images 2” section of the website further define the geographical feature known locally as “The Knob”. The “Knob” was a very high topographical area along Benshoff Hill Road in southern Middle Taylor Township. The “Knob” was just southwest of where we lived and was above (and overlooked) the Minersville section of Cambria City in the City of Johnstown. Photo 4 in the “Images 2” and Photographs 6 and 7 in the “Images 3” sections of the website shows where the Hinckston Run stream confluences with the Conemaugh River in the Minersville section of Cambria City in the City of Johnstown near the 4th Avenue Bridge and Iron Street.
As you can see, in addition to being in proximity in horizontal distance, but yet in much higher elevation than the Hinckston Run stream valley, the Benshoff Hill/Valley View area and the central and southern portions of Middle Taylor Township were also within the area of influence of groundwater zones for both the Bethlehem Steel Corporation Rosedale coke plant, which had contaminated soils, and it’s related Rider Dump (Rosedale) Disposal Area where coal refuse and waste slag were dumped in an uncontrolled manner for several decades and which leached contaminants into soils and into local surface water and groundwater resources.
Just a note about water…
The Cambria Iron Company and then Cambria Steel Company had debated to leave Johnstown to sites which had better quality iron ore in the Midwest. Committees formed about it and the operations decided to stay in the Johnstown region provided that the area’s water supply was improved. Thus the formation of the Manufacturer’s Water Company. The huge Quemahoning Dam and reservoir was constructed between 1910 and 1913 (See my extra section on the “Que” dam). Between 1898 and 1923 the operations expanded significantly. Just after the Great Depression, Bethlehem Steel Corporation assumed control of the Cambria/Johnstown Plant. This was in March 1923.
In order to better understand the relationship and interaction between rural, suburban and industrial land use, precipitation, runoff, surface waters, and the groundwater table the next section of this website will focus on some basic principles of the steel mill coke oven industrial process, contaminants that are generated from such operations, and the interaction between runoff and soils at the coal refuse and waste slag dump site and surface water streams and groundwater resources. This basic education will aid to better understand all the research that follows.