Oct 6, 2021 4 min read

The state Department of Environmental Protection is investigating emissions coming from the newly restarted Monessen Coke Plant after the agency received five air quality complaints from nearby residents since the facility began operating again last month.

The plant officially restarted coke production Sept. 14 after going into “hot idle” in June 2020 while temporarily closing, and flaring and other emissions can once again be seen emanating from the plant on Donner Avenue in the city.

DEP spokeswoman Lauren Fraley said the agency has been working with plant operator Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. of Ohio and has a contractor at the site to “observe visible emissions” after receiving the complaints recently.

“As part of DEP’s process to investigate complaints it receives, DEP has requested information from Cleveland-Cliffs on its operations since the restart, including information on coking and flaring, and will be conducting off-site and on-site inspections,” Fraley said in an email statement.

Protect PT, a local environmental group based in Harrison City, has also been monitoring the situation after volunteers canvassed nearly 500 households in Monessen and Rostraver Township over two days last week to ask residents about air quality problems.

“This is just another layer of pollution that these residents are already facing,” said Protect PT Executive Director Gillian Graber, who was part of the canvassing team. “Residents feel like they can’t go outside and are confined to their homes.”

Last week’s canvassing had been scheduled long before the coke plant restarted operations after the group sent surveys to 7,000 households in Rostraver Township last year asking about potential environmental issues involving the nearby Westmoreland County Landfill. Graber said they also questioned people last week about potential issues with the coke plant after some residents reported black soot appearing on their properties.

One of those Rostraver Township residents, Jack Kruell, said he noticed in late August or early September an overnight event in which vegetables in his garden were damaged and a black substance appeared on roads and sidewalks near his Johnson Avenue home. While that event happened before the coke plant officially restarted, he’s unsure if there were other activities happening there as the ovens were brought out of hot idle. Kruell took samples that he plans to have tested this week to help determine the origin of the black substance.

“It’s everywhere. And of course you look at people’s gardens, leaves, etc., it was not just my phenomenon here,” Kruell said. “This will be the fingerprint of the source. We have a big problem here.”

Kruell said he has been in contact with the compliance officer at the Monessen Coke Plant, and feels like the company is attempting to address his concerns.

“This hasn’t happened in quite some time here. It was clean here,” he said.

The DEP said it’s not unusual for operators to test equipment as part of their restart plan, although it was not known what may have been reactivated before coking resumed Sept. 14.

“It would be typical for maintenance activities to take place and natural gas boilers to restart before coking begins again,” Fraley said.

Cleveland-Cliffs spokeswoman Pat Persico said they have been working with DEP and are currently in compliance following an “audit” by the environmental agency on Sept. 30. Persico said they were informed of the complaints by area residents and have worked to fix any issues.

“We’re aware of those (and) we’ve addressed those,” Persico said. “We’re in good standing.”

Protect PT is now installing air monitors at homes in the area and encouraging residents who notice problems to report air quality issues using the Report PT app that can be downloaded on the group’s website at www.protectpt.org. There is additional information on the group’s website on how to document problems and report them to the DEP and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“Because Westmoreland County does not have a health department, we’re getting left to fend for ourselves when it comes to the impact from industry. It shows why industry needs to be held in check,” Graber said. “We’re just not getting the attention in Westmoreland County that we deserve. These residents are getting left behind.”

The Monessen Coke Plant was part of a $1.4 billion acquisition when its previous operator, ArcelorMittal, was sold to Cleveland-Cliffs last October. Cleveland-Cliffs announced in June it was bringing back 100 workers from the idled Monessen facility and planned to restart production in August.