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LTV facing multimillion-dollar fine Justice Department seeks $27,500 per day for emissions violations at recently closed Hazelwood coke plant Tuesday, March 31, 1998 By Don Hopey, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Bad air from the LTV coke works in Hazelwood is gone but not forgotten.
The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a civil complaint in federal court seeking penalties of up to $27,500 a day for violations of coke battery emissions from October 1996 until the plant closed a month ago.
The fines could be assessed for multiple penalties each day for "pushing" violations at each of five coke batteries and their combustion stacks, but the maximum penalty is unlikely. Negotiators for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and LTV were discussing penalties in the $8 million range prior to the government's filing Wednesday.
"You could do the math based on maximum fines but that would be misleading. There are numbers on the table but they are in negotiation and subject to change," said David Sternberg, an EPA spokesman.
The Group Against Smog and Pollution yesterday entered a motion to intervene in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.
"We're serious about having a company that violated the Clean Air Act pay for those violations," said Marie Kocoshis, GASP's president.
"The company by its own admission violated the law and impacted the health of citizens in Hazelwood and Greenfield. The reason we intervened is that this is our only opportunity to represent the best interests of the citizens and make sure that any fine assessed is not just a slap on the wrist."
Lisa Cherup, an attorney in the Justice Department's environmental enforcement section, said the government has not counted the violations.
"That would be determined in litigation," she said. "We have been attempting to negotiate over a penalty and reached a point where no progress was made. We realized litigation was necessary."
Mark Tomasch, an LTV spokesman, said the Cleveland-based steelmaker was disappointed by the government's filing, but "still interested settling the matter."
The company decided in July to close the 81-year-old Hazelwood coke plant, which employed about 750 and had run afoul of the Clean Air Act.
The shutdown was delayed by the United Steelworkers union, which had filed a contract grievance that led to a lengthy arbitration. During the arbitration fight, LTV admitted that the coke plant could not be operated in compliance with air quality standards unless it started a massive capital improvement program costing $400 million or more.
In March 1997, the EPA filed a notice of violation against LTV for exceeding particulate emissions from combustion stacks for more than 18,000 hours of the 29,400 hours the plant operated from May 1 through Dec. 1, 1996.
"Given the nature of the violations, that they are longstanding, continued and admitted, it would be hard to imagine the government wouldn't be asking for a substantial penalty," said William Luneberg, an attorney representing GASP.
Kocoshis said she would like to see any settlement or court award of damages against LTV include a pollution mitigation project in Hazelwood, something that has come up in penalty settlement negotiations.
The Clean Air Act contains a Beneficial Mitigation Projects provision that allows communities where pollution has occurred to receive up to $100,000 from the polluter as part of any penalty settlement.
"It's not much money for a community like Hazelwood that's been polluted for the duration of the coke plant's operation," she said, "but at least it's something."
The original coke plant was built in Hazelwood, on the north bank of the Monongahela River, in 1917. The five coke batteries shut down at the end of February were built in 1960 and 1961. Their 339 operating ovens were producing about 115,000 tons a month.
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