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Neighbors, city clash at forum on coke plant
Thursday, August 06, 1998 By Cindi Lash, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
For Kristy Kuhn of Brookline, a new coke plant in Hazelwood would mean a chance for her father to once again bring home good wages and for her and her younger brother to finish college.
Her voice quavering, the 20-year-old LaSalle University senior told an audience of more than 200 people that life had been grim for her family since her father, Thomas Kuhn, lost his job of 32 years at the former LTV coke plant in Hazelwood.
Kuhn said she worked 30 hours a week and her college-sophomore brother worked as well. A new and more efficient coke plant, which Sun Coke Co. may build on the site of the old plant, would give her dad and her family a shot at hanging onto their future, she said.
"I worked in the Hazelwood plant for two summers with my dad, and they were the best two summers of my life," Kuhn said, weeping and clenching her fists. "It's no fun now to see him worrying about how he'll support his family, how we'll finish college. People talk about the high-tech future. How can I be part of that future if I can't afford to finish college?"
But for every Kristy Kuhn who spoke in favor of the new plant at a public hearing last night, there was someone who pledged to fight its construction.
Opponents said they feared the health effects of gases and chemicals emitted by the coking process and don't want Hazelwood and surrounding communities to be plagued once again by noise and dirt.
The hearing at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill was sponsored by GASP, the Group Against Smog and Pollution, which frequently tangled with LTV over air pollution generated by the old plant, and the group has expressed reservations about its proposed replacement.
"I don't think it's right to have to live all closed up" in order to avoid plant-generated dirt and gases, said Frances Harkins of Munhall. "Making coke is inherently dirty. I commend the Sun Co. for its technology. But I don't think this (urban neighborhood) is the area for their plant."
Sun Coke, of Knoxville, Tenn., is considering building a $350 million coking facility on the site of the old LTV plant that closed a year ago. A subsidiary of Sun Co. of Philadelphia, Sun Coke earlier this year opened a $350 million state-of-the-art coking plant in East Chicago, Ind.
The Pittsburgh coke plant could employ 150 to 300 people and could make up to 1.94 million tons of coke each year. It would also include a co-generation electrical plant.
A decision on the plant is expected in early September. If the project is approved, construction could begin in April, Mayor Murphy said.
During last night's often raucous hearing, former steel workers who hope to return to work in a new plant clashed in a noisy debate with environmentalists and people with asthma and respiratory ailments who said they treasured the clear air and skies that emerged when the old plant closed.
But workers and neighbors of the Sun Coke plant in East Chicago said it was a much safer place than older coke plants and emitted no gases or noxious odors.
Murphy, noticeably testy after plant opponents questioned his commitment to their health and concerns, warned that opposition to the plant could threaten Sun's interest in the Hazelwood site -- and the jobs the plant could bring.
"This is the first major manufacturing project that the city of Pittsburgh, will have seen in 25 years. ... It's too important for us to lose."
Plant opponents who want Pittsburgh to stake its future on high-tech industries, rather than manufacturing jobs, are being "elitist and insulting," he added.
"You can say, 'We don't want coke, it's dirty. We want something else.' But I can tell you, there isn't a long line of 'something elses,' of people who are willing to build plants here," he said. "If your attitude is 'No way, no how,' then we're going to have a good fight. We're going to make this plant happen."
Earlier in the day, Murphy met for 90 minutes with Sun Coal and Coke President Mike Dingus, LTV Steel chairman David Hoag, county commissioners Mike Dawida and Larry Dunn, United Steelworkers subdistrict Director John DeFazio and other local and state officials.
Participants said there was "a lot of progress" made at the meeting, and Pittsburgh remains ahead of cities in Ohio and Kentucky in the race for the plant.
Staff writer Timothy McNulty contributed to this report.
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