Residents: Cleaner air, but not clean enough
The Allegheny County Health Department says the air in the still-industrial Mon Valley is cleaner than it has been in decades, but a dozen residents at a board of health meeting Wednesday said that’s not good enough.
Jim Kelly, department deputy director of environmental health, repeated Tuesday’s announcement that the soot monitor in Liberty, downwind from U.S. Steel Corp.’s Clairton Coke Works, met the federal standard for airborne particles in 2018 for the first time.
And he said the county’s portion of a state plan to control pollution shows that Liberty and all eight county monitors measuring what is called PM 2.5 — pollution particulates 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller — would meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards by 2021.
“Meteorology may have had an influence on the PM levels because of all the hard rain events and fewer and less severe inversions, but we don’t think it was a significant effect,” Mr. Kelly said. “More significantly, violations were way down, and Clairton [Coke Works] had the fewest since 2015. So 2018 was a particularly clean year.”
The 2018 annual PM 2.5 value for the Liberty monitor was 11.5 micrograms per cubic meter, slightly lower than the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 12, and more than a point below the 2017 value of 13.4. The short-term, daily PM
value was 28 micrograms per cubic meter, lower than the EPA standards of 35 and below the 2017 value of 36.5. All other county monitors are also in compliance.
But Matt Mehalik, executive director of the Breathe Project, a coalition of 24 local environmental organizations, told the health board “it’s premature to be doing a victory lap” even with the Liberty numbers much improved.
“We have to make sure that U.S. Steel doesn’t backslide,” he said. “There is much work yet to be done.”
Don Nevills, a Navy veteran and business owner from Clairton, urged the health board to take quick action on new, tougher coke oven emissions standards.
“I understand what the [coke works] means to the region. I get it. But what I can’t understand is why we can’t have clean air,” Mr. Nevills said. “We’ve come part way, but we’ve got a long way yet to go.”
He said at the same time the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker is making $1.8 billion in profits, the cancer rate in Clairton is significantly higher than the national average.
“The company is reaping the rewards. It can afford to start replacing its three antiquated coke batteries that are causing so many problems,” Mr. Nevills said. “You can help us live longer and breathe easier by holding U.S. Steel accountable,” he told the health board.
Mark Dixon, a local environmental filmmaker, called the steelmaker’s operation of the coke works following a Dec. 24, 2018, fire that destroyed its desulfurization equipment and led to nine violations of sulfur dioxide emissions standards “criminal” and the health department response “impotent.”
“Air quality better than it used to be is no longer good enough,” Mr. Dixon said. “We demand clean air now.”
“It’s important we do figure out the sources and emissions,” said Joylette Portlock, a health board member, “and link those to the actual health impacts.”
Kurt Barshick, general manager of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works, which includes Clairton, the Edgar Thomson steel mill in Braddock and the Irvin mill in West Mifflin, said the operations have had no sulfur dioxide exceedances since the pollution control repairs were completed at the coke works April 4 and has met the performance requirements set forth in several consent orders.
After the lengthy meeting ended, Karen Hacker, health department director, said the department has heard the complaints and requests for help from Mon Valley residents and is taking unprecedented action to address the air pollution problems.
“We’ve done nothing but increase our efforts in that area. We have heard their complaints, and I am glad they are speaking out,” Dr. Hacker said. “I welcome their comments, but we also need to acknowledge improvements when we see them.”
She said the department is reviewing whether to intervene on the side of PennEnvironment and the Clean Air Council in a federal lawsuit filed Monday in Pittsburgh that alleges U.S. Steel violated the federal Clean Air Act by continuing to operate the coke works and its Edgar Thomson and Irvin steel mills without adequately controlling emissions of sulfur dioxide and other coke oven gases.
“We want to make sure we don’t get in the way of the citizens complaint they filed,” she said.
The department is reviewing air quality data but has not yet assessed fines related to the emissions that occurred for 102 days from the date of the fire until the desulfurization equipment went back in operation.