Dive Brief:
- U.S. Steel Corp. received authorization from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice late last month for a $24.5 million consent decree to address air pollution violations surrounding its Clairton coke plant.
- The company will invest $19.5 million in upgrades at its plant in Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley region after a fire occurred at the plant in 2018 as well as power outages in 2019 and 2022. The fire was said to be caused by a mechanical failure and knocked out pollution controls at the plant for months.
- The decree now requires final approval from a Pennsylvania district court, which remains pending.
Dive Insight:
The long-awaited consent decree is largely in response to public health concerns following a fire explosion at the coke plant in 2018. Coke is a carbon-rich material used to make steel.
In the decree, the steelmaker also agreed to contribute $4.5 million to fund public health projects and support local communities in the Mon Valley area that are impacted by the poor air quality.
U.S. Steel will also idle one set of coke ovens, known as a battery, at its Clairton facility, with no job losses.
The decree also details that U.S. Steel will cover part of the litigation costs for PennEnvironment and the Clean Air Council and pay $500,000 to the Allegheny County Clean Air Fund.
For weeks following the 2018 fire, there were reports of exacerbated asthma and respiratory distress in children in a nearby school district due to excessive sulfur dioxide emission levels, according to PennEnvironment. As a result, many local residents called for the complete shutdown of the coke works plant.
“We regret that these accidental incidents occurred and believe this consent decree greatly benefits Mon Valley communities,” U.S. Steel said in a March 26 statement.
The company also agreed to a lower hydrogen sulfide limit in coke oven gas, exposure to which can be dangerous to health.
After the idling of one of the plant’s batteries, the site will have six remaining coke batteries, with production capacity for 3.3 million tons of high-grade coke per year for the company’s Mon Valley Works’ Edgar Thomson Plant and other steel-producing locations, according to a Mon Valley Works Clairton Plant report.
The Clairton plant is the only remaining U.S. Steel coke-producing plant in the U.S.
The poor air quality and pollution the plant is said to cause has led to pushback from the surrounding community for years. In fact, U.S. Steel closed its three oldest coke batteries last March, according to a company statement.
U.S. Steel isn’t the only coke producer in the Mon Valley area. Cleveland-Cliffs has a major coke plant in Monessen, Pennsylvania, along the same river as U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant.
The federal government has also joined the fight to clean up U.S. steel production. On March 26, the Department of Energy funded up to $6 billion for 33 projects focused on decarbonizing the industrial sector, including iron and steel production.
