Lawyers from a prominent Alton law firm have filed a class action suits against Granite City’s United States Steel Corp. and an affiliated company, SunCoke Energy, claiming they both pollute the air with silt and noxious odors.
Attorneys Ted Gianaris and Joe Anna Pollack of Simmons Hanly Conroy filed a suit on behalf of “all persons who own and reside on real property within Madison County that has been contaminated with total suspended particulates and/or offensive odors discharged or emitted from the Steel Mill from Nov. 11, 2009, until present.”
The named parties are people who live near the plant in Granite City. The class must be certified before it can go forward.
U.S. Steel and SunCoke, the parent of Gateway Energy and Coke Co., announced in 2008 a joint program to build and operate SunCoke on the Steel Mill property. Gateway is also a defendant in the suit.
In announcing the project, officials said the coke mill will produce 650,000 tons of coke per year “in an environmentally responsible way.”
A coke plant turns coal into coke, a key ingredient in the steel-making process. The product is used in making steel at U.S. Steel in Granite City.
The suit claims the plants release suspended particulates that leave a silty deposit on nearby residents’ properties and gets into the nearby homes.
“In addition, SunCoke and U.S. Steel regularly release substantial amounts of noxious odors into the air,” the suit claims.
The companies also know that the silty deposits and noxious odors migrate off-site into the surrounding area, the suit claims.
“As a result, the residents living downwind of the Steel Mill, including the plaintiffs, have endured intolerablye conditions that drive them into their homes and otherwise prevent them from using and enjoying their property. The emissions have ruined the property of the plaintiffs and potential class members, the suit claims.
SunCoke Energy Inc. and two of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay $1.995 million to resolve alleged Clean Air Act violations of emission limits at the Gateway Energy and Coke plant in Granite City, and the Haverhill Coke plant in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, according to a 2013 announcement by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department.
“Despite the settlement in 2013, SunCoke continues to release emissions that substantially impact the properties of plaintiffs and the class members,” the suit claims.
The release from the EPA and the DOJ said the process used at Granite City is less likely to produce dangerous by-products, but the problems at Granite City have been caused by occasional lapses in the operation.
Source: thetelegraph.com
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