Records Request Yields More Details on June Breakdown at Clairton Coke Works

In early June, Mon Valley residents were dealt three straight days of persistent rotten egg odor caused by elevated hydrogen sulfide (H2S) levels - a stretch punctuated by a breakdown at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works facility that prompted a public statement from the Allegheny County Health Department and outcry from frontline residents.

At the time, details about the breakdown were preliminary: On the afternoon of June 2 an unknown breakdown occurred at Clairton Coke Works’ Control Room #5 that caused coke oven gas to only be partially cleaned before being emitted into the ambient air. ACHD said it was investigating both the incident and an associated spike in both H2S and sulfur dioxide (SO2).

But now, a public records request made by GASP has shed new light on the incident and its impact on our local air quality.

Namely, that during the nearly eight hours that Clairton Coke Works’ Control Room #5 was offline, the facility emitted a crazy amount of pollution. Here’s what U.S. Steel told ACHD in a follow-up breakdown report required to be submitted within seven days of a breakdown:

H2S grains were elevated in the coke oven gas during the bypass of No 5 Control Room. Approximately 8 tons of SO2 emissions from Clairton, Edgar Thomson, and Irvin were emitted until No 5 Control Room was fully brought back online.

That means U.S. Steel emitted more than 24-hours' worth of SO2 during that eight-hour breakdown - its Title V permit allows an average of 5.22 tons a day (or 1,907.33 tons annually).

A couple other things we wanted to flag...