Pollution from Pittsburgh-area Allegheny Ludlum Plant Far Exceeds Clean Air Act Limits, Threatening Public Health
Pittsburgh, Pa. – In Brackenridge, 20 miles from downtown Pittsburgh, furnaces at the Allegheny Ludlum steel plant have — for over a decade — been far exceeding permitted Clean Air Act limits for nitrogen oxides and other pollutants. In March, four environmental organizations provided notice that they intended to sue the owners of the plant for those violations. Now, the Allegheny County Health Department, which has taken responsibility for regulating air pollution in the county, has reached an agreement with Allegheny Ludlum that does very little to resolve the plant’s pollution problems.
“Instead of cracking down on the pollution from Allegheny Ludlum’s furnaces, the county wants to let the company off the hook through a revised permit,” said Patton Dycus, Senior Attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project, which represents GASP and PennEnvironment in the environmental groups’ legal action. “The county’s actions do nothing to protect the health of those living downwind of this plant.”
The Clean Air Act allows concerned citizens to sue polluters when government regulators fail to sufficiently enforce the law. At least 60 days before such a suit is filed, citizens must provide notice of their intent to sue. On March 23, the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP), PennEnvironment, the Environmental Integrity Project and the Clean Air Council provided notice that they intended to sue Allegheny Ludlum in federal court on or after May 22.
On the first day that the environmental groups could file suit, the county health department — presumably in an attempt to preempt the groups’ lawsuit — filed a separate state-court lawsuit against Allegheny Ludlum, as well as a settlement of that lawsuit that the county reached with the company.
“The ineffective settlement does not require Allegheny Ludlum to comply with its current permit limits,” said Rachel Filippini, executive director of Group Against Smog and Pollution. “Instead, the settlement only requires the company to pay $50,000 in penalties and to provide a short easement for a bike trail — and invites the company to apply for new, higher limits.”
Last fall, the county health department proposed revised, unlawfully high limits that would allow the furnaces to annually emit over 200 tons of nitrogen oxides. Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds from industry and cars react in sunlight to form ground-level ozone, or smog. The American Lung Association’s 2017 State of the Air report gives Allegheny County a “F” grade for smog — and particulate matter (soot) — pollution. Asthmatics, children, the elderly and those who work and play outdoors are most at risk from smog’s effects, which include difficulty breathing, permanent lung damage, aggravated lung disease, and death.
“The health department’s regulations provide that affected groups can intervene as a matter of right in an enforcement lawsuit filed by the department,” said Christopher Ahlers, Staff Attorney at the Clean Air Council. “But the department never reached out to the environmental groups regarding the lawsuit and settlement it filed yesterday.”
The department claims that Allegheny Ludlum’s furnaces are unable to reduce pollution below their current levels, but this is not true. For nitrogen oxides in particular, the environmental groups have found permits for similar furnaces at other U.S. steel plants that require pollution reductions far below the new limits that the health department proposed last fall.
The plant is owned by Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Ludlum, LLC, ATI Flat Rolled Products Holdings, LLC, and Allegheny Technologies Incorporated.
The Environmental Integrity Project is a 15-year-old nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, based in Washington, D.C., that is dedicated to the enforcement of environmental laws and holding polluters and governments accountable to protect public health.
Group Against Smog and Pollution works to improve air quality to protect human, environmental, and economic health in southwestern Pennsylvania.
Clean Air Council is a member-supported, non-profit environmental organization serving Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic Region. The Council is dedicated to protecting and defending everyone’s right to a healthy environment. For over 50 years the Council has worked through a broad array of related sustainability and public health initiatives, using public education, community action, government oversight, and enforcement of environmental laws.
PennEnvironment is a citizen-based environmental advocacy group working to promote clean air, clean water and protect our natural heritage. To find out more, visit www.PennEnvironment.org.
Media contacts:
Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project, (202) 888-2703 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
John Baillie, Group Against Pollution and Smog (GASP), (412) 924-0604 ext. 202 or john@gasp-pgh.org
Christopher Ahlers, Clean Air Council, 215-567-4004 x 125 or cahlers@cleanair.org
David Masur, Penn Environment, (215) 732-5897 ext. 1 or davidmasur@pennenvironment.org
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