Groups Challenge Weak EPA Rules for Benzene and Other Pollutants from 17 Plants, Including in PA, IN, and AL
Washington, D.C. – A coalition of clean air advocates filed a federal lawsuit against the EPA yesterday afternoon demanding stronger rules to reduce hazardous air pollution – including cancer-causing benzene – from steel industry coke oven plants across the country.
Coke oven plants, located in Western Pennsylvania, Northern Indiana, Alabama and a dozen other locations in the U.S., superheat coal in a kiln without oxygen to produce a carbon-dense coal byproduct that is used in iron and steel manufacturing.
Because these plants release large amounts of air pollution, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on July 5 imposed new regulations meant to control their hazardous emissions, including benzene, mercury, lead, and arsenic.
The Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club, and PANIC filed a lawsuit challenging the new rules in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because the regulations did not go far enough to control benzene, exposing communities downwind from coke oven plants to dangerous levels of this carcinogen.
“EPA failed to impose strong enough standards to adequately protect the public, and failed to require industry to install modern pollution control technologies that are readily available,” said Haley Lewis, attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project. “The public health risk is unacceptable, and so we are asking the D.C. Circuit Court to intervene.”
Tosh Sagar, Earthjustice attorney, said: “For decades, the EPA has ignored setting coke oven standards, allowing cancer-causing pollutants to harm communities in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. These communities have suffered enough. We’re urging the D.C. Circuit to force the EPA to finally do its job and protect them.”
Alex Bomstein, Clean Air Council Executive Director, said: “Pennsylvania steel communities have lived with dangerous air quality for generations. That needs to end. All of us deserve the cleanest air for the health of our families and our communities, no matter where we live.”
Among the facilities that would be impacted by the rule is the largest coke works in North America, the U.S. Steel Clairton plant southeast of Pittsburgh, where air pollution monitors have detected dangerously high levels of benzene.
Other coke works where unhealthy levels of benzene have been detected include Indiana’s Cleveland Cliffs Burns Harbor plant, beside Lake Michigan; and ABC Coke in Birmingham, Alabama.
For a copy of the EPA regulations that are being challenged, click here.
For a copy of the lawsuit, click here.
The Environmental Integrity Project and coalition of allied groups sent EPA a detailed critique of the new hazardous air pollution regulations, which you can read here.
The Environmental Integrity Project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting public health and our natural resources by holding polluters and government agencies accountable under the law, advocating for tough but fair environmental standards, and empowering communities fighting for clean air and clean water.
Clean Air Council is an environmental nonprofit founded in 1967 that works through public education, community action, government oversight, and enforcement of environmental laws to protect everyone’s right to a healthy environment.
Earthjustice is the nation’s premier environmental law organization. We believe that everyone has the right to a healthy environment. Since our founding more than five decades ago, we’ve defended that right by using the power of the law to fight for the earth and its inhabitants.
Media contacts:
Tom Pelton, Environmental Integrity Project (443) 510-2574 or tpelton@environmentalintegrity.org
Zahra Ahmad, Earthjustice, (517) 898-0924 or zahmad@earthjustice.org
Lee McNew, Clean Air Council, lmcnew@cleanair.org