U.S. Steel Corp. has agreed to pay millions to clean up its steelmaking operations in the Mon Valley in a settlement that environmental advocates and health officials cheered as one of the largest citizen air quality enforcement wins in U.S. history.
Specific details on the agreement could not be immediately confirmed as the consent decree won’t be filed in court until Monday. Court records indicate the parties reached their agreement in early November.
U.S. Steel said Friday that it signed a finalized settlement with the Allegheny County Health Department, Clean Air Council, and PennEnvironment, agreeing to a variety of improvements and payments, including $19.5 million in upgrades to coke facilities and a $5 million payment towards air quality improvement pojects.
PennEnvironment put the total investment higher, writing in its own Friday release that U.S. Steel had agreed to pay $37 million toward “pollution control and plant reliability upgrades.”
That included a $17.5 million sum that it said U.S. Steel has already spent to “replace deteriorating equipment and dramatically upgrade preventive maintenance programs” since the lawsuit was filed.
U.S. Steel said it has invested roughly $750 million in its Mon Valley operations in the past five years and spends more than $100 million per year on environmental compliance efforts at Mon Valley Works.
PennEnvironment originally sued U.S. Steel after a Christmas Eve fire at its Clairton plant in 2018 damaged pollution control equipment. For months after that, the lawsuit charged, untreated coke oven gas that was used as fuel and burned off in flares emitted higher than normal amounts of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide into the air. Hydrogen sulfide, which has an unmistakable rotten egg smell, is particularly pronounced in the Mon Valley during an air inversion, when warm air acts as a lid on top of ground-level pollution.
As part of the settlement, U.S. Steel agreed to accept stricter permit limits on the amount of hydrogen sulfide in its coke oven gas.
“We regret that these accidental incidents occurred and believe this consent decree greatly benefits Mon Valley communities,” U.S. Steel said in a statement.
PennEnvironment said the $5 million payout negotiated in the deal is the largest in a Clean Air Act citizen enforcement suit in Pennsylvania history, and one of the three largest ever nationally.
The Pittsburgh steelmaker also agreed to idle Clairton’s Battery 15, which PennEnvironment said accounts for 10% of its coke ovens.
U.S. Steel closed its three oldest coke batteries in Clairton last year, also in response to environmental concerns.
The company had previously planned a $1.5 billion renovation of Mon Valley facilities but scrapped those plans in 2021, announcing instead the battery closures and plans to build modernized mini mills in Arkansas.
The proposed agreement comes as U.S. Steel shareholders are set to vote on the company’s sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel Corp. If successful, Nippon would have to take on the terms of the agreement, the filing reportedly states.
In a statement, County Executive Sara Innamorato called the settlement “a win for the people of Allegheny County.”
“We all deserve clean air, and when polluters violate clean air standards, they must be held accountable. I want to thank all the co-plaintiffs and the team at the Allegheny County Health Department who diligently worked on this case for more than five years to find a resolution.”
Evan Robinson-Johnson: ejohnson@post-gazette.com and @sightsonwheels
First Published: January 27, 2024, 12:42 a.m.
Updated: January 27, 2024, 8:42 p.m.