Data from monitors in Mon Valley did not reflect any exceedances of SO2 while pollution controls were offline

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THIS PLANT. RESIDENTS IN CLAIRTON SAY THEY EXPECT ANOTHER BURST OF POLLUTANTS TO ERUPT FROM CLAIRTON WORKS. THEY JUST DON’T KNOW WHEN. >> THEY CLAIM THAT IT’S FIXED NOW, BUT HOW DO WE KNOW? SHELDON: DO YOU TRUST U.S. STEEL AND CLAIRTON WORKS? >> NO. >> IT IS FLARING COKE GAS UP AT IRVING WORKS AND IT’S BLOWING BACK HERE AND COMING BACK DOWN. WHAT GOES UP, COMES DOWN. IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THAT. SHELDON: WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD HAPPEN ULTIMATELY? >> ULTIMATELY, IF THEY CAN’T CLEAN UP, THEY NEED TO CLOSE UP. SHELDON: SOME OF THE MOST OUTSPOKEN RESIDENTS IN CLAIRTON HAVE LIVED HERE THE LONGEST. HEARING THAT U.S. STEEL MADE REPAIRS AFTER YESTERDAY’S FIRE AND GETTING POLLUTION CONTROLS BACK ONLINE DOESN’T BRING ANY LEVEL OF CALM OR ASSURANCE ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE. U.S. STEEL IS TAKING ON CRITICISM FOR REPEATEDLY TAKING A BAND-AID APPROACH. >> THIS HAS BEEN A PLANT THAT HAS BEEN BAND-AIDED A NUMBER OF TIMES AND HAS NEVER REALLY BEEN INVESTED TO A POINT WHERE THE POLLUTION IT IS CREATING IS ACTUALLY GOING TO BE CONTAINED. SHELDON: IT IS ALSO IMPORTANT THAT GOING FORWARD, THERE WOULD BE SOME SORT OF BACKUP SYSTEM OR REDUNDANCY, SO IF THERE IS A PROBLEM IN A CONTROL ROOM, ANOTHER SYSTEM WOULD COME BACK UP ONLINE. UNITED STEEL WORKERS LOCAL 1557 SENT PITTSBURGH’S ACTION NEWS 4 THIS STATEMENT, REPRESENTING THE WORKERS INSIDE CLAIRTON WORKS. "WE ENCOURAGE U.S. STEEL TO NOT ONLY INVEST IN NEW PROJECTS, BUT TO PROPERLY MAINTAIN THE CURRENT EQUIPMENT IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT AND TO KEEP ITS WORLD-CLASS WORKFORCE SAFE." SHELDON: U.S. STEEL IS STILL STANDING BY ITS PREVIOUS STATEMENT THAT THE PLANT IS BACK ONLINE AND THAT POLLUTION

Advertisement U.S. Steel resumes operations at Clairton Coke Works following fire; Health Department verifies pollution controls back online Data from monitors in Mon Valley did not reflect any exceedances of SO2 while pollution controls were offline Share Shares Copy Link Copy

The Allegheny County Health Department confirmed that pollution controls at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works were back online following a fire Monday morning. The Health Department said inspectors were at the plant and verified that all systems were back online and the desulfurization process, which is how the plan "cleans" its coke oven gas, had been restored. Data from the monitors in the Monongahela Valley did not reflect any exceedances of sulfur dioxide (SO2) while pollution controls were offline for nearly 16 hours, the Health Department confirmed. However, the Health Department says it still has concerns about the long-term health of the plant, like another serious incident that could cause harmful emissionClean Water Action, a watchdog group working with Clairton residents, says it has little faith that all is secure at the plant. "This is a plant that has been Band-Aided a number of times," said Geoff Bland. "It's never really been invested to a point where the pollution it has created, is going to be contained."U.S. Steel said operations were resumed at approximately 8:15 p.m. Monday. "Restarting the desulfurization facility and minimizing the potential for impacts to the environment and community were of the highest priority for the company." a statement from U.S. Steel said. On Monday, the Health Department issued an emergency order requiring U.S. Steel to repair or shut down the plant. County officials said that after desulfurization was restored, the concerns of the order had been met. The Health Department said it remains concerned about redundancies to equipment and will continue to push U.S. Steel to address that concern and ensure that a failure such as this can be avoided in the future. Workers inside Clairton Works are represented by United Steel Workers Local 1557. The union issued this statement to Pittsburgh's Action News 4, "We encourage U.S. Steel to not only invest in new projects but to properly maintain the current equipment in order to protect the environment."Tap the video player above to watch video of what the "Breathe Project" believes is Monday's fire. The Breathe Project is a collaboration of more than 28 environmental organizations. U.S. Steel says the electrical equipment fire started around 4:30 a.m. Three control rooms were shut down, including two that control the cleaning of the coke oven gases.Those are the same control rooms that were shut down immediately following the fire on Dec. 24. U.S. Steel says it immediately put mitigation measures in place to limit the impact to the environment. Read the statement from Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald below: “I'm very disappointed that this is happening again. People in this community need assurance that the pollution control equipment is reliable and usable. Organizations with critical systems like hospitals have to ensure that there are redundancies and back-ups. U.S. Steel shouldn’t be any different. “I implore U.S. Steel to use all due speed to get this fixed as soon as possible and to take immediate steps to put in a back-up system for their operations. The health of the people of Clairton and surrounding communities, and the U.S. Steel employees, is too important to do otherwise. “I commend Dr. Hacker and the Health Department for taking quick action and issuing an emergency order for U.S. Steel to address this now. I urge them to continue pushing the company to do what is necessary today to protect the health of our residents.”The full statement from U.S. Steel is as follows:"Early this morning, Monday, June 17, a small electrical fire was detected on an electrical breaker panel impacting power to the by-products facility of our Clairton Plant. There were no injuries and the fire was quickly extinguished. Immediately, steps were taken to mitigate environmental impacts. Crews are working to assess the facility and the steps necessary to return the facility to normal operations. "At present, the desulfurization process is not operational. We are following mitigation steps to include replacing coke oven gas with natural gas and flaring while we work to repair the damaged equipment. "We have notified all appropriate regulatory agencies and will continue to provide updates to the public as more information is available."