Planning has started and permitting is underway for more than $1.2 billion worth of projects planned for U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works facilities in Braddock, Clairton and West Mifflin, Mon Valley Works General Manager Kurt Barshick said Tuesday.Barshick, along with U.S. Steel engineers and project managers, met with community members and elected officials during an information session at the U.S. Steel training facility in Duquesne to share details of the upcoming investments, which the company claims will improve efficiency and reduce pollution.“We’re already making reductions, we’ve hit reductions in SO2, PM2.5, PM10 in the things we’re currently doing,” Barshick said. “The next level, these strategic projects, it’s a game changer. We get to the next level of environmental improvement.”The projects include a new endless casting and rolling facility at the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock and a new cogeneration facility at the Clairton Coke Works in Clairton. Equipment upgrades will also be made at the Irvin Works facility in West Mifflin.U.S. Steel hopes to break ground on the projects in October, Barshick said.The endless casting and rolling facility is planned to be operational by September 2022, with the cogeneration facility coming online a few months after that, he said.The endless casting and rolling facility will more efficiently produce steel coils that will be purchased by U.S. Steel customers or transferred to the Irvin Works for further finishing, according to details provided by U.S. Steel.The cogeneration facility will more thoroughly clean coke oven gas, removing larger quantities of pollutants like sulfur dioxide and particulate matter from emissions, according to the company.It also will use coke oven gas to generate steam and electrical power to run the Mon Valley Works, further reducing its carbon footprint.U.S. Steel officials could not provide figures illustrating how much the new investments will reduce overall pollution from across the Mon Valley Works facilities Tuesday evening but are working on calculating those figures, U.S. Steel spokesperson Amanda Malkowski said.“My fear is, especially when it comes to U.S. Steel, things have been said in the past but we’ve been left brokenhearted,” said Jonathan Reyes, who serves on East Pittsburgh Borough Council.He wants to see air quality improve and hopes investments in projects like the cogeneration facility will pay off in better air quality, not just increased production that benefits U.S. Steel, he said.Failing to clean up the air will hurt communities, especially young people, he said.“Then that’s more days my kids have to stay inside because they smell rotten eggs outside,” Reyes said. “I don’t want them to be another asthma statistic.”Edith Abeyta, of North Braddock, attended the event to find out how local economies in North Braddock and surrounding communities might benefit from the upgrades.“I still don’t really understand” Abeyta said, noting that, aside from temporary construction workers who might be employed to help build the new facilities, she wasn’t convinced that there would be additional economic impact.Barshick could not say exactly how jobs throughout the Mon Valley Works would be affected, but noted that employees and management would be trained on the new equipment.“It’s not so much a reduction in jobs,” Barshick said. “The jobs are going to change. They’re going to be more high-tech. So, rather than jobs that are labor jobs, where we have people with shovels or wrenches, these are going to be jobs with highly automated equipment: robotics, lasers, sensors. So, instead of our employees picking up maybe a wrench or a shovel, they’re going to grab laptops. They’re going to grab volt meters. They’re going to grab high-tech equipment to maintain the line and to operate it.”The company last shared details about the projects in May in the midst of several months of criticism over elevated levels of air pollution connected with a December 2018 fire at the Clairton Coke Works.At the time, the company claimed that the upgrades would help both sites to be more environmentally friendly and efficient and repeated those promises Tuesday evening.The endless casting and rolling facility and cogeneration facility projects are separate from upgrades outlined in a June 2019 settlement agreement with the Allegheny County Health Department related to 2018 and early 2019 air pollution violations at the Clairton Coke Works.Those upgrades, which are expected to cost about $200 million, are specific to emissions control systems, bag houses and batteries at the Clairton Coke Works facility.“That is outside the scope of our strategic investments,” Barshick said. “So, not only will we be doing the cogeneration facility, having reductions in emissions from all the strategic investments, the $200 million we’ve committed to will improve the environment even further.”Penalties related to the December 2018 and a subsequent June 2019 fire will be handled in a federal lawsuit brought by the Allegheny County Health Department and environmental groupsThe Allegheny County Health Department is not participating in the information sessions this week but will be involved in aspects of the projects associated with planning, permitting and enforcement, officials said in a statement Monday.A second, identical session will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the U.S. Steel training facility in Duquesne.Buses will be available to shuttle community members from Clairton and Braddock to the event. The Clairton shuttle will depart from the Clairton Municipal Building at 5:15 p.m. The Braddock shuttle will depart from the Braddock municipal building at 5:30 p.m. Both shuttles will return to their respective starting points at 7:40 p.m., following the meeting.
Source : https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-allegheny