PennFuture sues EPA over coke oven standards

A Pennsylvania-based environmental advocacy group is among those suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency for failing to adequately regulate coking facilities across the country.

PennFuture, which has an office in Pittsburgh and has advocated for stricter emissions regulations at the Clairton Coke Works, has joined with Louisiana Bucket Brigade, the Sierra Club and Gasp of Birmingham, Ala., to file the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday.

The San Francisco-based environmental law nonprofit Earthjustice is leading the suit.

“I think Pennsylvania and PennFuture’s long, historic involvement on working on Clairton Coke made it really important for us to be involved,” said PennFuture Staff Attorney Alice Baker, adding that filing this suit in federal court and taking a federal agency to task elevates the work PennFuture has done in Southwestern Pennsylvania to a national level.

The groups point to U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works facility, one of the largest coke plants in the country, as an example of a potentially harmful site.

The facility operates 10 coke oven batteries, which contain multiple coke ovens, and produces about 4.3 million tons of coke annually, according to U.S. Steel.

The EPA does not comment on pending litigation, an agency spokesperson said in an email Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges that the EPA has failed to properly regulate coking facilities by not reviewing and revising federal emissions standards related to two points in the coking process. Those regulations, which cover other steps but leave out two points in the process related to coke ovens, were set in 2005.

According to the lawsuit, the agency recognized that those standards could be insufficient at the time they were issued and should have reviewed them within eight years, a timeline set forth by the Clean Air Act.

As a result, residents who live near coke works facilities nationwide could be at risk of exposure to carcinogens and other hazardous materials, according to the lawsuit.

But the suit isn’t just about the Clairton Coke Works and is unrelated to a Dec. 24 fire that set off months of discussion about emissions violations, Baker said.

“It’s about standards at coking facilities across the country,” Baker said.

Birmingham, where Gasp works, is home to two coke plants.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is advocating on behalf of the residents of St. James Parish, La., where a new coke plant could soon be constructed.