U.S. Steel facing new lawsuit over Mon Valley facilities
Environmentalists filed a lawsuit against U.S. Steel on Monday, accusing the Pittsburgh-based multinational of violating federal law by purportedly failing to disclose months of hazardous emissions following a Christmas Eve fire and then another in mid-June that destroyed equipment at its Clairton Coke Works.
Attorneys from the Environmental Integrity Project are representing the Clean Air Council in the lawsuit it brought in the U.S. District Court for Western Pennsylvania under the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
Poor air quality in the weeks after the December fire prompted the Allegheny County Health Department to warn people in many nearby towns in the county 鈥� including Forward Township, which sits across the river from Monongahela, New Eagle and Union Township 鈥� to limit outdoor activity.
Adam Kron, senior attorney with EIP, said members of the public have a right to know what鈥檚 in the air they breathe.
鈥淭his information isn鈥檛 available elsewhere,鈥� Kron said. 鈥淚t has to come from U.S. Steel.鈥�
A U.S. Steel spokesperson didn鈥檛 immediately answer a request for comment.
The case is the latest of U.S. Steel鈥檚 legal problems related to its operations in the Mon Valley.
In April, the Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment filed a federal lawsuit under the Clean Air Act over alleged emissions violations at the company鈥檚 Clairton works, the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock and the Irvin Plant in West Mifflin in the wake of the fire, which brought down two control rooms that process coke oven gas burned at all three facilities. The Allegheny County Health Department has joined those groups in the lawsuit, which is ongoing.
Meanwhile, a draft settlement with the health department over unrelated violations that purportedly occurred at the Clairton works in 2018 and 鈥�19 would require the steelmaker to pay $2.7 million in fines and undertake repairs and other measures to control emissions.
In the new case, the Clean Air Council alleges that U.S. Steel released benzene, a carcinogen; hydrogen sulfide, a respiratory irritant and asphyxiant; and other contaminants as it burned unprocessed gas as fuel or by flaring at the Clairton, West Mifflin and Braddock plants from Dec. 24 until April 4, when U.S. Steel said it had placed the control rooms online again.
The company also did so following a June 16 fire that damaged the same control rooms, the lawsuit claims.
Also known as the Superfund law, CERCLA requires companies to report releases of hazardous substances above certain levels to the National Response Center for each 24-hour period they occur.
EIP lawyers estimate that following those fires, the facilities emitted amounts of benzene and hydrogen sulfide well above the federal standards, but that the company failed to report that information to the center following either fire. They also claim U.S. Steel similarly failed to notify the center on July 5, when an air monitor in Glassport recorded elevated benzene levels 鈥渁round the same time that cameras recorded significant flaring at the Irvin Plant.鈥�
Clean Air Council seeks a court order requiring U.S. Steel to report the alleged releases, and to comply with its CERCLA obligations in the future.