Clean Air Advocates File Lawsuit Against EPA To Reduce Hazardous Air Pollutants From Steel Industry Coke [Coal] Oven Plants

On September 4, a coalition of clean air advocates announced they have filed a federal lawsuit against the US Environmental Protection Agency demanding stronger rules to reduce hazardous air pollution – including cancer- causing benzene – from steel industry coke [coal] oven plants across the country.

Coke oven plants, located in Western Pennsylvania, Northern Indiana, Alabama and a dozen other locations in the U.S., superheat coal in a kiln without oxygen to produce a carbon-dense coal byproduct that is used in iron and steel manufacturing. 

Because these plants release large amounts of air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on July 5 imposed new regulations meant to control their hazardous emissions, including benzene, mercury, lead, and arsenic.

The Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, and PANIC filed a lawsuit challenging the new rules in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the regulations did not go far enough to control benzene, exposing communities downwind from coke oven plants to dangerous levels of this carcinogen.

“EPA failed to impose strong enough standards to adequately protect the public, and failed to require industry to install modern pollution control technologies that are readily available,” said Haley Lewis, attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project.  “The public health risk is unacceptable, and so we are asking the D.C. Circuit Court to intervene.”

Tosh Sagar, Earthjustice attorney, said: "For decades, the EPA has ignored setting coke oven standards, allowing cancer-causing pollutants to harm communities in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. These communities have suffered enough. We're urging the D.C. Circuit to force the EPA to finally do its job and protect them."

Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director, said: “Pennsylvania steel communities have lived with dangerous air quality for generations. That needs to end. All of us deserve the cleanest air for the health of our families and our communities, no matter where we live.” 

Among the facilities that would be impacted by the rule is the largest coke works in North America, the U.S. Steel Clairton plant southeast of Pittsburgh, where air pollution monitors have detected dangerously high levels of benzene.

Other coke works where unhealthy levels of benzene have been detected include Indiana’s Cleveland Cliffs Burns Harbor plant, beside Lake Michigan; and ABC Coke in Birmingham, Alabama.

Click Here for a copy of the lawsuit.

(Photo: Clairton Coke [Coal] Works, Pittsburgh)

NewsClips:

-- The Allegheny Front: Environmental Groups Sue EPA Over Coke [Coal] Oven Battery Rules

-- Financial Times: Biden Set To Block Nippon Steel’s Takeover Of US Steel, Transaction Poses A National Security Risk

-- Post-Gazette: Shapiro Steps Up Negotiations As Biden’s Potential Block Of US Steel Deal Jolts Region

-- Post-Gazette Guest Essay: For PA Steelworkers, The Nippon-US Steel Deal Must Go Through - By Sen. Kim Ward (R-Westmoreland), Senate President Pro Tempore

-- Pittsburgh Business Times: US Steel CEO Warns Company Would Close Mon Valley Works, Clairton Coke [Coal] Works, Thomson Works, Irvin Plant, Pittsburgh HQ If Nippon Steel Deal Falls Through

-- TribLive: Harris Disapproves Of US Steel Sale To Nippon During Pittsburgh Event

-- TribLive: Nippon Steel Pledges $1 Billion To Mon Valley Works Pending US Steel Acquisition As Government Opposition Continues

[Posted: September 4, 2024]  PA Environment Digest