U.S. STEEL FINED
The company was fined $743K for coke works violations.
The Allegheny County Health Department Friday announced it has slapped U.S. Steel with fines totaling $743,625 for more than 400 air pollution violations at its Clairton Coke Works from April through September 2019.
The fines are stipulated in a June 2019 consent agreement, and the emissions violations occurred throughout the cokemaking process at various batteries, ovens, transport areas and combustion stacks, according to the health department’s official notification letter to the steelmaker dated Tuesday.
“We thank the Allegheny County Health Department for its continued vigilance when it comes to U.S. Steel noncompliance with air quality regulations,” said Rachel Filippini, executive director of the Group Against Smog and Pollution. “However, the fines levied against U.S. Steel in this most recent order are for the same types of violations we’ve seen from the company for decades.
“The repeated nature of these violations is indicative of chronic operational failures and systemic subpar facility maintenance.”
The health department’s announcement of fines comes a week after about 100 Clairton residents and environmental activists held a rally in Downtown Pittsburgh and jammed a county board of health meeting to protest the region’s poor air quality.
Emissions from the coke works in Clairton, 20 miles south of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River, have been a focal point for clean air activists since a fire on Dec. 24, 2018, destroyed its pollution control system and resulted in the
plant operating for 100 days without the desulfurization equipment.
“Our community deserves more than this,” said Melanie Meade, a Clairton resident. “Clearly something is wrong. These fines are not stopping U.S. Steel from polluting our community. U.S. Steel has been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars and our community doesn’t have any access to these funds. We need a safe place to go during an emergency and an emergency evacuation plan.”
“It’s good that the Allegheny County Health Department is capturing these emission violations by U.S. Steel at the Clairton Coke Works,” said Matt Mehalik, executive director for the Breathe Project. “Residents are tired of being subjected to a relentless number of emission violations that have disrupted the holidays and life in the Mon Valley.”
Mr. Mehalik said the coalition of more than three dozen environmental, educational and community groups is reviewing Friday’s consent agreement to determine if additional sanctions are called for, including placing the plant on “hot idle.”
A hot idle order would keep the coke ovens heated but would suspend coke production until the company fixed problem emissions.
While such a suspension of production is theoretically possible, U.S. Steel has said it would likely result in oven damage and permanent shutdown of the damaged ovens or batteries.
Amanda Malkowski, a U.S. Steel spokeswoman, issued a statement saying the company is “reviewing the request for payment of stipulated penalties and is verifying that the data and demand are consistent with the conditions outlined in the June 2019 Settlement Agreement.”
That agreement can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/ 35TEz9V
The stipulated penalties were calculated pursuant to the health department’s agreement that was reached with U.S. Steel in June 2019. In addition to stipulating penalties for recurring pollution emissions, the consent agreement also required U.S. Steel to pay penalties of $2.73 million to settle four earlier county enforcement actions that the company had appealed.
It also requires the company to spend $200 million to improve coke battery operations, including upgrades to emissions controls, plant infrastructure and maintenance.
U. S. Steel said it is making progress on its envionmental improvement projects and has spent more than $50 million a year for the last five years to improve environmental performance at the coke works and the Edgar Thomson and Irvin steel mills in Braddock and West Mifflin.
The company also said it remains committed to investing $1.2 billion in a modern steel mill caster and cogeneration facility.
Of the stipulated penalty amount, 90% or $669,262.50, will be paid to the Community Benefit Trust for impacted communities, with 10% or $74,362.50, going to the county Clean Air Fund.
The department’s Tuesday letter to the Pittsburghbased steelmaker states that the demand for stipulated penalties “in no way precludes the department from issuing demands for other stipulated penalties for other violations that may have occurred from Apr. 1 through Sept. 30, 2019.”
The Clairton Coke Works is the largest in the U.S. Coke is used to produce iron and steel. Clairton’s 10 coke batteries contain 708 coke ovens and more than 6,300 potential coke gas emission points. The facility employs 1,200, and each year produces about 4.3 million tons of coke.