Feds approve U.S. Steel agreement with county, environmentalists over 2018 plant fire

An agreement for U.S. Steel to pour nearly $25 million into its Mon Valley facilities and support the health of residents living near them has taken another step closer to becoming reality.

U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy on Tuesday signed a consent decree the steelmaking giant inked in January with the Allegheny County Health Department and two environmental groups to address the effects of a 2018 fire at its Clairton Coke Works that crippled the plant’s pollution controls and led to power outages there in 2019 and 2022.

Hardy had to wait 45 days after the parties entered the agreement to sign the deal officially.

As part of the decree, U.S. Steel will spend nearly $20 million upgrading its Mon Valley facilities, and funnel $4.5 million into health and clean-air programs in the Pittsburgh area. It also will permanently idle batteries at the Clairton plant, which was built in 1901 and today is the country’s largest facility to manufacture coke, a key ingredient in the steel-making process.

“It took five years but we’ve reached an historic settlement,” said Zachary Barber, the Pittsburgh-based clean air advocate for PennEnvironment, one of the groups in the decree. “It’s excellent to see this go forward … This is going to pave the way for health projects in the Mon Valley, which are sorely needed.”

“It is a huge win that (a judge) has approved this settlement without changes and that it now has the power of the court behind it,” added Alex Bomstein, executive director of Clean Air Council, the second environmental group in the decree.

A spokeswoman for Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato did not immediately return calls or emails on Tuesday seeking comment.

U.S. Steel on Tuesday also lauded the step forward in the decree’s courtroom journey.

“We regret that these accidental incidents occurred and believe this consent decree will allow us to move forward with the promised updates to our facilities, and our commitment to communities in the Mon Valley,” U.S. Steel said in a statement.

The gas-fueled 2018 fire burned for about two hours and tore through the Clairton plant’s No. 2 Control Room, damaging critical equipment used to clean coke-oven gas and shutting down pollution-control systems.

County health officials subsequently began to warn residents about high levels of sulfur dioxide, and a 2021 Pitt study said the fire sickened nearby residents.

The settlement resolves a 2019 citizen lawsuit brought by Mon Valley residents affected by more than 100 consecutive days of the Clairton plant emitting heightened amounts of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.

The nearly $20 million U.S. Steel spent upgrading its Mon Valley facilities as part of the settlement is very specific, said Barber, the clean air advocate.

The settlement funded repairs to the coke plant’s fire and sprinkler systems, paid for installation of real-time, vibration-detection equipment for several compressors, and supported repairs to control room roofs and exhaust fans, among a myriad of other measures.

“This won’t be like the billions they promised, then walked back,” Barber said.

U.S. Steel announced a $1.2 billion improvement plan to its Mon Valley facilities in May 2019, then cancelled the proposed upgrades two years later.

As part of the new settlement, the Jefferson Regional Foundation will receive $2.25 million and the Allegheny County Department of Economic Development will receive $2.25 million to fund public health projects directly benefiting Mon Valley communities experiencing poor air quality near the three U.S. Steel plants, county officials said.

U.S. Steel has agreed to a lower hydrogen sulfide limit in coke-oven gas and other environmentally beneficial changes to facilities at its Clairton plant. It also will pay $500,000 to the Allegheny County Clean Air Fund.

Company officials said the permanent idling of the Mon Valley Works Battery No. 15 will take place without any job reductions and could lead to additional emissions reductions.

Environmental advocates have called the settlement’s $5 million penalty the largest for a Clean Air Act citizen lawsuit in Pennsylvania history, and one of three largest in the nation.

Attorneys for the groups have said the announced sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel Corp. also won’t affect the settlement.