Pollution controls damaged by a Christmas Eve fire at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh are working again. But many people who live in the area are still feeling the effects — and worrying about their health.
It took more than three months to fix pollution equipment damaged in a Christmas Eve fire. Without the controls, US Steel's facilities released five times the amount of sulfur dioxide as they normally are permitted to emit.
U.S. Steel now has until April 15 to fix the Clairton Coke Works' pollution controls. In the meantime, they'll still have excessive sulfur dioxide emissions.
The Allegheny County Health Department says the plant is emitting five times more sulfur dioxide than it’s supposed to, and must take action to fix the problem.
Health department's Dr. Karen Hacker suggested new policies to make it easier to immediately shutdown facilities whose emissions exceed air quality standards at monitors.
Hot idle is when the plant stays running but doesn’t produce any coke. They say their health should be more important than the business of the Clairton Coke Works.
