FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 8, 2023
Contact:
Joe Callahan, SWPATHS
joe@breatheproject.org, 412-638-8204
Debra Smit, Breathe Project
dsmit@breatheproject.org, 412-760-7677
Two crucial public hearings on air quality in Allegheny County are proposed to update permits of long-standing polluting operations in Clairton and Natrona, Pa. Holding these public hearings this month on Jan. 10 and Jan. 17 in light of new developments in Allegheny County and with the recent sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel seems ill-advised at this time.
Southwestern Pennsylvania Resident-Led Town Halls (SWPATHS) is asking that the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) postpone these public hearings announced in December 2023 until questions around health department leadership and the transition of ownership of the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works (CCW) are resolved.
The two permit hearings include U.S. Steel Mon Valley Works Clairton Plant, the largest coke plant in North America and a major source of our region’s pollution, and ATI Flat Rolled Products, which produces specialty steel from scrap steel and iron. The ATI facility has never had an operating permit to date. Both plants are in environmental justice communities.
“Holding hearings on two major and controversial sources of air pollution at a time of year when residents are just returning from the year-end holiday season, in the heart of winter when weather is a barrier to attendance, is poor timing for such an important decision,” said Howard Rieger, convener of SWPATHS. “Residents in these communities have borne the burden of pollution for generations and have been excluded from proper community engagement. This time of transition should provide an opportunity for genuine inclusion.”
Allegheny County Health Dept. (ACHD) has had a long history of delay and inaction on permits that provide the basis for its oversight of our region’s worst polluters.
On December 19, 2023, SWPATHS sent a letter to ACHD, former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald and Allegheny County Council asking for the postponement of the deadline for comments on these permits. A response has not been received. Among the concerns stated in the letter:
· U.S. Steel, the current owner of the Mon Valley Works, has proposed a sale of its assets to Nippon Steel. This situation creates risks for trying to get permits into place during a time of transitional ownership of these facilities.
· ACHD is operating without a permanent director, and the interim director’s lack of public health experience raises the risk that the draft permits would not optimize ACHD’s recommendations for oversight.
· U.S. Steel’s poorly maintained plant, the largest source of pollution in Allegheny County, had its permit rejected by EPA Region 3 in the late summer of 2023. CCW has been fined over $12 million for not meeting its old, outdated, permit requirements. The updated draft must be examined carefully given these past deficiencies.
· As recently as Jan. 5, 2024, ACHD fined U.S. Steel $2.2 million for hydrogen sulfide exceedances.
· The ATI facility has never had an installation and operating permit before, despite the facility’s operation in the region for decades. This situation has been an ongoing outrage. The last hearing for this permit were conducted in Natrona Heights in November of 2017, and ACHD has sat on the permit until now.