Air Permit Hearing for Steel Mill Near Pittsburgh Draws Heated Resident Opposition
Pittsburgh is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Residents living near the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, in the Pittsburgh area, voiced frustration at a public hearing on Thursday night, October 15, over an air permit for a U.S. Steel project to build a hot strip mill at the plant, WESA reported on October 16.
The hot strip mill converts steel slabs into coils of thin, flat steel and would replace an aging operation at the company's Irvin Plant in nearby West Mifflin. Slabs are currently produced at Edgar Thomson and shipped by rail to Irvin for reheating and rolling; the new mill, heated with natural gas and coke oven gas, would eliminate that transport. U.S. Steel's new owner, Nippon Steel, is spending $1 billion on the facility.
While the project will lower U.S. Steel's overall pollution in Allegheny County, it would increase the Edgar Thomson Plant's own emissions of fine particles by more than 40 percent. Braddock councilwoman Patricia Kelley told the hearing the company is "moving their pollution over here," adding far more than previously existed. Braddock is an environmental justice community with some of the highest pollution levels in the state.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：匹兹堡市县大楼上的阿勒格尼县徽章。图片来源：Cbaile19，Wikimedia Commons，CC0。Photo: The Allegheny County arms on the City-County Building in Pittsburgh. Image: Cbaile19, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
