In response to the Allegheny County Health Department’s enforcement order against US Steel for pollution violations, the company released a statement Friday saying some of the required actions and deadlines laid out in the enforcement order are not possible without putting US Steel employees and local communities at risk.
The order, which accused US Steel’s Edgar Thompson plant, Irvin plant and Clairton Coke Works of violations including daily sulfur dioxide emissions, requires the company to reduce its use of coke oven gas and its daily sulfur dioxide emissions at the named facilities until repairs of the Clairton facility are complete, by June 30, 2019.
The Clairton facility was damaged in a fire on Dec. 24, 2018.