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LTV asks for decision to be made in 30 days
Wednesday, January 21, 1998 By Jim McKay, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
LTV Steel yesterday asked the Environmental Protection Agency to rule no later than Feb. 20 on the fate of its Pittsburgh coke works, saying a longer delay might jeopardize new industrial development on the site.
The steelmaker made the request for an expedited review as it submitted a proposal to the EPA on bringing the plant's complex of coke-making ovens into environmental compliance.
The company has delayed the closing of the 750-employee plant beyond its original target date last year as it wrangles with the United Steelworkers union and the EPA over whether a shutdown is necessary to meet Clean Air rules.
The union yesterday immediately attacked LTV for ignoring its offer to participate in drafting the proposal made to the EPA. The union wants the company to upgrade the facility rather than close it.
"LTV has submitted its own proposals that are designed to fail and avoid compliance because the company wants to go ahead with its plans to shut down and throw . . . people out of work," said Leo Gerard, the USW's international secretary-treasurer.
LTV said it has received "initial indications" from companies that say they are interested in industrial development on the 168-acre riverside site, but are not interested in operating the coke plant.
"We feel a protracted, drawn-out process would probably result in them going elsewhere," Mark Tomasch, the steelmaker's spokesman, said of the companies, which he refused to name. "It's for real. It's not a smoke screen."
LTV, Tomasch said, continues to be receptive to proposals from any "financially responsible" parties interested in operating the coke plant, but believes it unlikely that type of sale will occur.
Peg McCormick Barron, spokeswoman for Mayor Murphy, said the administration was aware of a few expressions of interest in the plant site, but said she could not comment on them.
LTV's filing with the EPA was ordered in a ruling made last week by a panel of arbitrators chosen to decide if the company's decision to close the plant violated an agreement with the union.
The award found that the company was obligated to submit a proposal to the EPA that would address normal maintenance to improve the plant's performance, short of spending any amount necessary.
"A very small window of opportunity remains open. The company has an obligation to attempt to enter that window and to put the ball squarely in the court of the EPA by submitting a proposal," the arbitration ruling said.
LTV maintains that the facility cannot be brought up to the government's standards without spending $400 million to $500 million to completely rebuild it. The union, however, contends $50 million would keep the plant operating until 2003 when environmental restrictions are to tighten.
The company maintained in testimony before the arbitrator that rebuilding the plant represented a big expense at a time when coke-making technology was changing and at a site far from the Cleveland and Chicago plants that use the plant's coke.
LTV said the proposal it made yesterday addresses only normal maintenance practices that it has or is willing to undertake to bring the plant closer to environmental compliance. The plan does not include costly capital improvements.
The company said its own proposals are "not sufficient to overcome the fact that the coke batteries have reached the end of their useful lives, and are in a deteriorating state."
Officers of the plant's union, USW Local 1843, had hoped to meet with the management yesterday afternoon and present their own plan for complying with environmental standards. LTV, however, made its submission in the morning.
The EPA, meanwhile, said it was continuing to deliberate over whether the Hazelwood coke plant can be allowed to operate after the failure last week of a piece of pollution control equipment -- a hood that collects smoke from red-hot coke after it is pushed from ovens into rail cars. The failure affects a small percentage of the plant's 255 operating ovens.
"Our air quality analysis people are busy crunching numbers and trying to look at all aspects of this," said Judith Katz, acting regional director of the EPA's Air Protection Division. "We're hoping to make a decision in the next few days."
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