Avalon supplants Clairton for dirtiest air
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Avalon, located downwind on most days from the Shenango Coke Works on Neville Island, had the dirtiest air in Allegheny County in 2010, according to Allegheny County Health Department monitoring data.
The municipality on the north bank of the Ohio River had higher levels of fine airborne particles than the Liberty/Clairton area in the Monongahela River valley, which is near U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works and historically has registered the highest readings.
"Liberty/Clairton still has higher 24-hour readings, but the highest average annual concentrations were measured in Avalon," said Jim Thompson, the county health department's air program director. "That's a significant change."
The Avalon monitor, installed at the end of 2009, measured the 2010 annual average for fine airborne particulates there at 16.4 micrograms per cubic meter, compared to 16.0 micrograms per cubic meter in the Liberty/Clairton area.
Both areas exceeded the federal PM2.5 standard of 15 micrograms per cubic meter. The tiny invisible particles, called PM2.5 because they are less than 2.5 micrometers in size, have big health impacts, according to scientific health studies, because they can be breathed deeply into the lungs where they can cause or aggravate respiratory or heart diseases.
Asked what caused the high PM2.5 reading in Avalon, Mr. Thompson said the monitor was directly downwind from the Shenango Coke Works, which registered 114 air quality violations during the first seven months of 2011 and was fined $114,000 by the health department.
The facility has a 30-year history of air pollution problems that have resulted in federal consent orders in 1980, 1993 and 2000 and a county consent order in 2005. Since 1990 and prior to 2011, the facility has paid fines totaling more than $2 million.
"After the 2005 consent order, Shenango made repairs and came into compliance, but over the past year we've seen a deterioration of that performance," Mr. Thompson said.
DTE Energy Services Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., which purchased the facility in April 2008, has appealed the enforcement action and fines. An administrative hearing on the appeal is scheduled for Dec. 21 with health department director Bruce Dixon.
Len Singer, a DTE spokesman, said the company hasn't seen the latest monitoring data from Avalon and declined to comment. He said the company would contact the health department "to determine what impact, if any, Shenango had on those monitoring results."
Tom Hoffman, Western Pennsylvania director for Clean Water Action, which has monitored emissions from Neville Island over the past decade, noted that 30 percent of Avalon's school children have asthma, and called the continuing air emissions problems at the coke plant "unconscionable."
"We've had members in the area complaining about emissions for years," Mr. Hoffman said. "When DTE came in, it said it would work with the community, but it's been less than willing to do that and has refused to meet with us."
Shenango opened in 1962, employs about 160 workers and operates one coke oven battery with 56 ovens that produce approximately 380,000 tons of coke a year.
First Published November 22, 2011 12:00 am
