AK Steel Files Petition for Review/Motion for Stay of U.S. EPA Order
9 June 2000
AK Steel Files Petition for Review/Motion for Stay of U.S. EPA Order
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio - AK Steel said today it filed a petition for review and
an emergency motion for stay in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
of a federal Environmental Protection Agency emergency order issued against AK
Steel on Wednesday. The order contains a provision requiring AK Steel to
provide backup water supplies and numerous other mandates for a community 20
miles downstream of AK Steel's Butler, Pennsylvania specialty steel plant.
The order, issued with only hours of notice to AK Steel, would impose
ambiguous, unnecessary, unreasonable and unlawful demands under the threat of
penalties of $15,000 per day for non-compliance.
The EPA gave AK Steel only three days to submit a response to the order,
an unprecedented timeframe for the agency. On Thursday AK Steel made a
request to the EPA to stay the order to allow the company and the EPA to meet
and clarify the order and to begin negotiations to resolve the matter quickly
and amicably. The EPA denied the request for a stay.
"We are absolutely committed to helping resolve the issue of AK Steel's
nitrate discharges into the Connoquenessing Creek," said Alan H. McCoy, vice
president, public affairs for AK Steel. "In the meantime, we will work
closely with the Borough of Zelienople to insure its citizens have a viable
water supply whenever it is required to draw from the Connoquenessing Creek,"
he said. Mr. McCoy reiterated that AK Steel is not violating its discharge
permit and is assisting the Borough of Zelienople voluntarily as a responsible
corporate citizen.
"However, this emergency EPA order, sprung completely by surprise, is
unlawful and so onerous as to guarantee that we would be in violation and
subject to significant penalties within a week of issuance. Despite EPA's
designation of this order as an emergency, the alleged threats to the water
supply are neither imminent nor substantial," Mr. McCoy said.
AK Steel says the 13-page emergency order contains unprecedented
timetables for response and substantial capital outlays even though EPA itself
acknowledges that AK Steel is in full compliance with the terms of a valid
wastewater discharge permit and there have been no reported cases of adverse
health effects as a result of the discharges.
According to AK Steel's petition for review, EPA's emergency order
mandates that AK Steel
1. undertake investigations of numerous and unspecified private and public
water wells and water supply systems,
2. pay for virtually unlimited sampling and reporting of data collected
from the well and water supply investigations,
3. undertake sampling and reporting obligations that apply solely to
public water supply systems under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act,
4. provide unspecified alternative drinking water supplies to numerous
unspecified private and public entities, and
5. undertake investigations and substantial expenditures to reduce
discharges that EPA admits are in full compliance with a valid
discharge permit.
Facts Regarding The Issue
* AK Steel acquired the Butler steel plant with its acquisition of Armco
on September 30, 1999. The Butler Works employs about 2,500 people.
The plant melts, rolls and finishes stainless and electrical flat-rolled
steels.
* The Butler plant utilizes a standard specialty steel industry practice
in its use of nitric acid for cleaning (called pickling) dirt and scale
from the steel after certain processing steps. The spent (waste) acid
is neutralized and treated before being discharged into the
Connoquenessing Creek.
* In 1995 the company (then Armco) obtained a National Pollution Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) permit renewal from the Pennsylvania
Department of Environmental Protection (PaDEP) for the discharge of this
wastewater. PaDEP granted the permit to the company under authority
granted it by U.S. EPA Region III without objection or comment from U.S.
EPA. The company has been and remains in compliance with the permit.
* The company has committed to finding a viable alternative to its present
nitric acid pickling process through conversion to non-nitric pickling,
nitric acid treatment processes and acid recovery systems. The company
has been working to reduce its nitrate releases substantially by October
2001.
* AK Steel knows of no aquatic life disruption or adverse human health
effects reported from the company's discharges into the Connoquenessing
Creek
* Monitoring data provided by the Zelienople water treatment plant
indicates that the plant frequently increases the concentration of
nitrate/nitrite (N/N) compounds. On these frequent occasions, raw water
enters the plant containing concentrations of N/N compounds below the
federal and state maximum contaminant levels (MCL), but leaves the plant
and enters the water system with N/N levels above the MCL.
* High levels of N/N compounds in public water supplies have been reported
across the United States. The greatest single source of these compounds
is the over-application of nitrogen-based fertilizers. Despite what is
clearly a national issue that has been documented for almost five years,
until the order against AK Steel, U.S. EPA has never issued an order of
this type under the SDWA to any public or private entity.
AK Steel produces flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel
products for automotive, appliance, construction and manufacturing markets, as
well as standard pipe and tubular steel products. AK Steel is headquartered
in Middletown, Ohio. It employs about 11,000 men and women in steel plants
and offices in Middletown, Coshocton, Mansfield, Warren and Zanesville, Ohio;
Ashland, Kentucky; Rockport, Indiana; and Butler, Sharon and Wheatland,
Pennsylvania. AK Steel also produces snow and ice control products, and
operates a major industrial park on the Houston, Texas ship channel.