CLAIRTON, Pa. — U.S. Steel will invest millions of dollars in upgrades and community support after it reached an agreement for several incidents at Clairton Coke Works.
According to U.S. Steel, the Clairton Plant reached a consent decree with the Allegheny County Health Department, Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment that includes $19.5 million of investments in upgrades to coke oven gas cleaning facilities.
U.S. Steel will also contribute $4.5 million to support local communities. The money will go toward projects supporting public health and welfare and/or air quality improvement in the Mon Valley
The decree comes after the Clairton Plant caught fire on Christmas Eve 2018 and breakdowns in 2019 and 2022.
The agreement resolves the case that alleged thousands of air pollution violations stemming from the 2018 Christmas Eve fire and the subsequent 102 consecutive days of illegal emissions of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, Allegheny County said.
“We regret that these accidental incidents occurred and believe this Consent Decree greatly benefits Mon Valley communities,” U.S. Steel said.
The settlement also mandates millions of dollars in investments by U.S. Steel in pollution control and plant reliability upgrades to prevent future breakdowns of essential pollution control systems. U.S. Steel spent $17.5 million to replace deteriorating equipment and dramatically upgrade preventive maintenance programs after this suit was filed, and must now complete two additional capital projects, totaling $19.5 million, to prevent system outages, officials said.
As part of the decree, Clairton battery 15, which has been on hot idle, will move to permanent idle. This may lead to additional emissions reductions, U.S. Steel said. It will move to permanent idle without job reductions.
U. S. Steel also agreed to a lower hydrogen sulfide limit in coke oven gas and other environmentally beneficial changes to facilities at the Clairton Plant.
“This settlement is a win for the people of Allegheny County. We all deserve clean air, and when polluters violate clean air standards, they must be held accountable. I want to thank all the co-plaintiffs and the team at the Allegheny County Health Department who diligently worked on this case for more than five years to find a resolution that delivered economic investments for the Mon Valley and put critical pollution controls into place that benefit everyone in the region,” Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said.
U.S. Steel must pay automatic penalties for any future outages which would allow the emission of an unlawful amount of SO2, no matter the cause, officials said.
According to the Allegheny County Health Department, in the past 12 years, hazardous air pollutants have decreased by 80% in Allegheny County.
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