Coke plant operator Shenango agrees to meet with concerned residents
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Shenango Inc. has agreed to meet with residents of municipalities downwind from its coke works on Neville Island who are worried that the company's recent air pollution violations have degraded air quality and exacerbated childhood asthma levels in the Northgate School District that are the worst in the state.
About a dozen residents Wednesday hand-delivered a letter requesting a "public accountability meeting" to Shenango plant manager Steven Guzy, who came to the front gate of the plant to accept the letter. He agreed to attend a meeting on some unspecified date but not until "the timing is better."
The Allegheny County Health Department cited Shenango in August for 114 air pollution violations and assessed fines of $114,000. The Health Department ordered Shenango's owner, DTE Energy in Detroit, to submit plans detailing how it will eliminate "excess fugitive emissions from its coke ovens." DTE Energy has appealed the fines, and Mr. Guzy said the company is working to correct the violations.
Bill Bartlett of Bellevue, who delivered the letter to Mr. Guzy, said he became concerned about his health and the health of his 7-year-old son when he heard that asthma rates at Northgate are 36.7 percent of the school population. He also said a recent report indicated that a county monitor in Avalon, next to Bellevue, showed the area along the Ohio River to have the worst air in the county in 2010.
"There may be other sources upwind but I don't know how much further you need to look than Shenango," Mr. Bartlett said. "Shenango is slapping us in the face, fighting over paying a pittance of a fine rather than fixing the problem."
Emission levels at Shenango worsened throughout the spring, and the Health Department issued the violations and fines and ordered DTE Energy to submit plans detailing how it will eliminate "excess fugitive emissions from its coke ovens."
The plant has one coke-oven battery made up of 56 ovens that process 1,500 tons of coal per day. The pollution emissions occur during pushing operations, when hot, incandescent coke is removed from an oven and transported to the quenching station, a process that occurs 27 to 30 times a day.
First Published December 15, 2011 12:00 am
