U.S. Steel to appeal emissions order from Allegheny County Health Department
U.S. Steel said Friday it will appeal a directive from the Allegheny County Health Department that would require the company to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions at the Clairton Coke Works and two other facilities in the Mon Valley.
The steelmaker declared its plans a day after the county health department’s enforcement order, which gave the company five days to respond. In the order, officials cited sulfur dioxide emissions data since a Christmas Eve fire damaged the Clairton facility to show the company’s “pollution mitigation strategy is not working.”
“After extensive analysis of data provided by U.S. Steel, the Health Department has determined that the most recent (sulfur dioxide) exceedance (sic) in the Mon Valley on February 4 was directly related to the lack of desulfurization at the Clairton Coke Works,” Deputy Director of Environmental Health Jim Kelly said in a statement.
A U.S. Steel spokeswoman Meghan Cox said the company will bring its appeal in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.
Per the order, the reduction in emissions must last until June 30, or until repairs to the Clairton facility are completed if they are finished before then.
Health officials’ analysis dealt with data from the Clairton works, plus U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock and the Irvin Works in West Mifflin.
Kelly said the daily sulfur dioxide emissions from those three locations near the Monongahela River “far (exceed) what is allotted” in their individual permits under Title V of the federal Clean Air law.
“We are also requiring the implementation of further mitigation strategies necessary to comply with permitted emission limits that were set for the protection of public health,” Kelly said.
Since the fire, authorities have issued repeated warnings for poor air quality stemming from emissions at the Clairton plant. Forward Township – an Allegheny municipality across the Monongahela River from Monongahela, New Eagle and Union Township – was in the warning area identified by the health department.
U.S. Steel said it expects to complete equipment repairs in eight or nine weeks.
The health department’s order gave several options to the steelmaker to come into compliance.
U.S. Steel accused county health officials of being uncooperative by issuing the “unilateral order.”
“As a result, we are forced to raise our concerns by appealing this Order that places workers’ safety at risk and would worsen environmental performance,” the company said in its own statement.