Northwest Indiana residents are expected to speak in two U.S. Environmental Protection Agency virtual hearings on Sept. 3 and 4.
The agency will host public hearings on its national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants for coke ovens and integrated iron and steel manufacturing facilities. The iron and steel hearing will be Sept. 3, and the coke ovens meeting will be Sept. 4.
Both meetings will be from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
On June 30, the EPA issued an interim final rule for national emission standards for integrated iron and steel manufacturing facilities, which revises all 2025 and 2026 compliance dates for standards to April 3, 2027, according to EPA documents.
Pollutants addressed by national emission standards for air pollutants include particulate matter, a criteria pollutant and multiple hazardous air pollutants, including mercury and acid gases, according to the EPA.
Integrated iron and steel manufacturing facilities include any facility engaged in producing steel from refined iron ore, according to the EPA.
The coke oven compliance deadlines would change from July 2025 to July 2027 if the interim final rule goes into effect, according to the EPA.
Northwest Indiana facilities are included in the rule updates, including U.S. Steel’s Gary Works facility and Cleveland-Cliffs’ Burns Harbor facility. The Indiana Harbor facility, which is operated by Cleveland-Cliffs and has a partnership with SunCoke Energy, is also included.
Cleveland-Cliffs and SunCoke did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement Friday, a U.S. Steel spokesperson said the Gary Works facility doesn’t have coke ovens, but coke is produced at the Mon Valley Works’ Clairton plant near Pittsburgh.
The statement said the steel industry must rely on and play by rules that are well-grounded in science and law to preserve American jobs and domestic steel production.
“These rules are supported by neither science nor law and would impose significant costs while setting technically unachievable standards,” the Friday statement said. “U.S. Steel is supportive of revisions to regulations that are within EPA’s statutory authority, based on sound science, and are technically feasible. Implementation of the existing rules would have provided little, if any, environmental benefit while significantly impacting American jobs and the nation’s critical infrastructure. Any delay in compliance deadlines does not change our continued commitment to environmental performance and safety.”
The EPA hearings come on the heels of a recently released Environmental Integrity Project report titled “The Steel Industry’s Hazardous Air Pollution,” which shows how the proposed delay or elimination of 2024 air pollution controls for the steel industry will impact public health.
The study included various Northwest Indiana plants, including the Cleveland-Cliffs/SunCoke Indiana Harbor East location in East Chicago; Cleveland-Cliff’s Indiana Harbor West in East Chicago; Cleveland-Cliff’s Burns Harbor location; and U.S. Steel’s Gary Works plant.
In 2023, 20 steel mills and coke plants nationwide emitted nearly 2.4 million pounds of air toxics, 289,722 tons of criteria air pollutants and 43.3 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, according to the study.
The EIP study claims that in 2022, an air monitor at Gary Works registered levels of chromium at the fenceline that were more than double the chronic health threshold identified in the report, according to Post-Tribune archives.
A U.S. Steel spokesperson previously said in a statement that the EPA concluded existing rules from 2003 for integrated iron and steelmaking facilities are “protective of human health and the environment with an ample margin of safety.” Gary Works and the company’s Mon Valley Works facilities have achieved a compliance rate exceeding 99%, according to the statement.
“The 2024 rules were not risk driven but were developed based on a misinterpretation and application of the Clean Air Act,” the previous statement said. “Environmental stewardship is a core value at U.S. Steel, and we remain committed to the safety of our communities as do our more than 3,400 Mon Valley Works employees, and more than 3,400 Gary Works employees.”
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com
