The Trump administration has reversed course and decided it will not delay Biden-era rules limiting air pollution from the steel industry.
In July, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency put a two-year pause on implementing hazardous air pollution standards for plants that make coke, a key component in steelmaking. It said the rules would not be feasible for the industry to implement. But environmental groups sued, and the EPA decided on October 3 that the new rules should go into effect, after all.
In its decision, the agency said that after hearing testimony and gathering public comments on the rules, it didn’t think companies “would face significant immediate compliance challenges” in meeting the coke oven rules.
The rules were supposed to go into effect in July. They established tighter limits for equipment leaks and set limits on different types of hazardous air pollutants, like the neurotoxin mercury.
They also required coke plants to set up fenceline monitoring for benzene, a known carcinogen. If the monitors recorded pollution levels above a pre-set threshold of 7 micrograms per cubic meter, the plants would have to make plans to clean up their emissions.
The EPA under the Trump administration found the rules would cost the industry only about $4 million a year to implement. But the industry claimed the real number was in the billions.
The EPA has yet to make a final decision on a separate set of rules it paused for iron and steel mills. Those rules were set to take effect earlier this year but in July were paused for two years.
The decision means plants like U.S. Steel’s Clairton coke works will have to comply with the monitoring requirements. An explosion there killed two workers on August 11 happened when a crew did maintenance on a gas isolation valve.
Local environmental groups lauded the decision.
“It will allow the community to at least see what benzene is being emitted on the fence line,” said Qiyam Ansari, executive director of Valley Clean Air Now. Many residents in the community have struggled with health problems that may be tied to local air pollution, he said. “Without those numbers and without that testing, it’s just really hard to gather that data as a regular citizen. So I think it’s paramount for us to be able to understand what’s going on in our own communities.”
Studies show children living near U.S. Steel plants in Western Pennsylvania have higher rates of asthma, and higher absentee rates in school. Other studies showed a correlation between another local coke plant and ER visits for heart and lung problems.
U.S. Steel said the rule wasn’t “well-grounded in law…based on sound science, [or] available and proven technology.” The company said it was evaluating its next steps and said it’s working on plans to comply with the new regulations.
