Record is clear

In the May 20 letter “The Height of Hypocrisy,” Ken Marino of Pittsburgh Works Together repeats his organization’s key talking points. Basically, if only the Allegheny County Health Department, local politicians and environmental groups had been more supportive of U.S. Steel’s permit application, the company would have honored its promise to invest over $1 billion to upgrade the Mon Valley Works.

Given the financial hit U.S. Steel (and many businesses) took last year and its decision to invest in a newer, non-union steel shop in Arkansas, one could conclude the decision was mainly an economic one; it is seeking more profitable investments than in the Mon Valley.

The record is clear. U.S. Steel engaged in contentious court battles with ACHD and the Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, 1993, 2007, 2008, 2014, 2016 and 2019 over serious pollution violations. In 2018, the Clairton fire knocked out critical pollution control devices for some 100 days, sickening local residents, as documented in a recent University of Pittsburgh study.

Most recently, U.S. Steel is the subject of a joint enforcement order from the EPA and the ACHD for emissions violations at the Edgar Thomson Plant. In April, the company was issued a notice of violation for exceeding the state’s hydrogen-sulfide standard at the Clairton Coke Works. If pointing these facts out is “taking every opportunity to villainize” U.S. Steel, then so be it.

Blaming U.S. Steel’s decision on “so-called” environmental groups and on the ACHD for slow-walking the permit (which it vigorously denies) seems offbase. From our perspective, if blame is to be assigned, it rests firmly with Allegheny County’s biggest air polluter.

JONATHAN NADLE

Beechview The writer is the president of the Group Against Smog and Pollution.