United States Steel Corporation (NYSE: X) announced that it has reached an agreement with the Allegheny County Health Department to resolve the company’s appeal of enforcement orders associated with battery compliance at the company’s Clairton Plant, in Clairton, Pennsylvania.
Under the terms of today’s agreement, U. S. Steel committed to an investment of approximately $200 million for improvements to the plant’s coke batteries, including upgrades to emission controls and plant infrastructure. The investments associated with the new agreement are in addition to the substantial investment in environmental improvements already committed by the company, including over $50 million specific to the Clairton Plant in 2018 as well as $100 million spent annually on environmental compliance across the Mon Valley Works facilities.
In May, the company separately announced an investment of over $1 billion to construct a new sustainable endless casting and rolling facility at its Edgar Thomson Plant and a new cogeneration facility at its Clairton Plant. This project exemplifies U. S. Steel’s continued commitment to conserve resources and improve environmental performance in the Mon Valley, and is expected to yield significant improvements in emissions, including reductions in Particulate Matter (PM), PM10, PM2.5, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides.
Under today’s agreement, the company will also enhance training measures for plant employees and submit to annual air compliance audits by a third-party consultant with extensive experience monitoring coke batteries, while the health department will revisit methods used to observe emissions to ensure measurements are fair, consistent and effective.
The agreement also continues the “Community Advisory Panel” initiated earlier this month to facilitate better communication between U. S. Steel officials and local residents. In addition, U. S. Steel will establish and administer a “Community Benefit Trust” to directly benefit the communities adjacent to the plant: Clairton, Liberty, Lincoln, Glassport and Port Vue. At the request of the company, 90% of the $2.7 million civil penalty agreed to by U. S. Steel will be allocated to the new trust, while the remainder will be deposited to the Allegheny County Clean Air Fund.
“U. S. Steel believes this agreement fairly addresses the reasons for our appeal of the enforcement orders related to battery compliance at our Clairton Plant while also demonstrating our commitment to protecting our shared environment and neighboring communities,” said Sara Greenstein, Senior Vice President of Consumer Solutions at U. S. Steel. “We remain committed to working cooperatively with the Allegheny County Health Department to employ additional and effective environmental performance enhancements for the benefit of all stakeholders in the Mon Valley and Southwestern Pennsylvania.”
source: USS |
