Federal park and wilderness managers have significant concerns and questions about smog and acid rain producing pollutants that will be emitted by a coke-making complex near Ebensburg, Cambria County, that the state hustled to approve last week.

		Previous coverage New coke plant gets quick OK (4/5/05)

John Bunyak, head of the National Park Service's permit program, said the coke plant's emissions could add to the haze problems in Shenandoah National Park 110 miles away and damage already degraded streams there.

"The plant will be emitting a large amount of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, airborne particles and sulfuric acid mist that has the potential to affect the Shenandoah, one of the parks we have problems with now in terms of visibility and streams that have acidified," Bunyak said. "This could exacerbate those conditions."

According to permit information provided by the state Department of Environmental Protection, the plant planned by Sun Coke Co., a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Sunoco Inc., is allowed to emit 3,661 tons a year of sulfur dioxide, 1,365 tons of nitrogen oxides and 940 tons of small and large airborne particles.

The Sun Coke plant will also be allowed to emit 47 pounds of mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin. Sun's original application asked for permission to emit 538 pounds of mercury a year.

A Sun Coke review of its coke plant processes on the company's Web site notes that the plants have "virtually no hazardous air emissions," and DEP Secretary Kathleen McGinty has said that the Cambria facility will "border on zero emissions."

Bunyak said the DEP's failure to accede to federal requests to halt action on the permit until the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service could receive and review emissions information leaves the federal assessment up in the air. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and several environmental groups also asked for more time to review the permit.

"We asked that the process be halted so that we could make an informed decision because we do have outstanding concerns," Bunyak said. "We were surprised when the permit was granted last week."

In its response to public comments on the permit, the DEP admitted that information on the effects of emissions on the national park and wilderness areas were not finished when the permit was approved. It said a condition has been added to the approval requiring the company to provide federal land managers with information about the emissions' impacts and mitigate those impacts if necessary.

The permit was approved April 4, the day before Cambria County was designated as being in nonattainment for federal soot limitations. Such a designation requires new large pollution sources like the coke plant to install the best available pollution control equipment and find soot emissions reductions from other industrial sources to offset the amount of soot the new facility will emit into the air.

Bunyak said the park service has 30 days to appeal the permit approval.

Coke is a key component in steelmaking and is made by baking coal at high temperatures. The Sun Energy Co. plant would produce 1.7 million tons of coke a year and sell it to the International Steel Group of Cleveland.

The coal will be supplied by Amfire Mining Co. of Latrobe, which plans to reopen a closed mine in Cambria County with the help of a $3.3 million grant provided by the state 10 days before the permit for the coke plant was approved. The mine will be operated as a nonunion facility.

The mine, coke plant and an attached electric generating facility will employ 750 people, an employment boost that has been welcomed in Cambria County.