In 2023, the EPA
required 20 industrial facilities to temporarily install air monitors around
their perimeters — known as fence-line monitoring — to assess the accuracy of
the companies’ estimates. The fence-line monitoring revealed that all of the
companies were underestimating emissions, some by large amounts. Benzene was
monitored at 30 times the estimated level at a coke plant near Pittsburgh, and
another toxic chemical at a Louisiana chemical plant was found at a
concentration 156 times the company's estimates. Clearly, there are problems
with these facilities’ toxic emissions estimates, and it shows that relying on
those estimates does not give an accurate measure of the pollution levels and
the health risks to the local people.
“Despite industry opposition, the EPA took action last year. More than 130 industrial facilities would have to install permanent air monitors, starting as soon as this year. Communities surrounding some of the country’s most notorious polluters would finally get a glimpse of what they were breathing. The monitors would act as a warning system: If pollution levels were to exceed new standards set by the EPA, the facility would have to find the source of the leaks and fix them. In fact, among the 20 plants that were forced to conduct temporary monitoring, half would have violated these standards, ProPublica found.”
Of course, with the Trump
administration came the initiation of environmental rollbacks, some in the form
of extensions to comply and some in the form of delays of new emissions
standards. Lisa Song of ProPublica noted that the EPA acknowledged:
“…a “discrepancy” between the self-reported emissions
and air monitoring data. “However, we have not determined the cause of the
discrepancy. We will explore this as part of the reconsideration” of the rules,
the email said.
One of the polluting facilities is the Clairton Coke Works just south of Pittsburgh, owned by U.S. Steel. It is the largest coke-making facility in the Western Hemisphere, and its ovens have been operating since 1916. The coke ovens utilize high temperatures to convert the coal to coke. Coke plant hazardous emissions include the benzene mentioned earlier, particulate matter (soot), and sulfur compounds. I wrote in more detail in 2023 about coke plant pollution. Temperature inversions in the hilly region sometimes cause the pollutants to accumulate closer to the ground into a hazy smog. Coke is later used to melt iron ore for steelmaking and smelting. The plant had a fire in 2018 that caused poor air quality and a spike in emergency room visits for asthma.
More recently, in August 2025, there
was an explosion at the plant that killed two workers. It is expected that the
plant will be fully back online when the burned section comes fully back online
early in 2026. Preliminary investigations indicate the explosion was caused by
pressure building inside a gas valve that caused the valve to fail.
Song writes that the process
for estimating emissions is difficult at the Clairton Works due to the many
pipes and valves at the plant:
“Industrial companies are required to report their
emissions to the EPA, but it’s not an easy task. Facility staff can take direct
measurements of pollutants by sticking a scientific instrument inside a
smokestack for several hours, for example. But a sprawling plant like
Clairton’s has miles of pipelines and up to thousands of components like valves
and fittings that could leak toxic gases. Trying to measure every potential
leak would be enormously difficult.”
“So the EPA allows facilities to provide estimates using
numbers called emission factors. Each emission factor estimates the leaks
produced by a specific industrial process, such as the amount of benzene
expected to be released from a “light-oil storage tank” at a coke manufacturing
plant.”
It is also reported that
EPA’s Office of Inspector General has criticized the use of emission factors,
especially for certain facilities, including coke plants. The estimation
methods have long been criticized. However, the Clairton Works officials say
they believed that their modeling estimates were correct before the monitors
proved them wrong. Song notes that a decade ago, the Obama administration
required oil refineries to install fence-line monitoring for the same reason -
that installed monitors exceeded estimates for benzene, a dangerous carcinogen.
This requirement led to lower benzene levels near refineries and is considered
to be a success. It makes sense to want the same process and outcome for coke
plants. The Trump administration is considering the requirement, but has given two-year extensions to some companies.
In March 2024, five
Democratic U.S. Senators, including both Pennsylvania Senators, wrote a letter
to the Biden administration arguing that the requirements would be too costly
to implement:
“Money spent pursuing marginal increases in air quality
– that does nothing to raise the bar for foreign competitors – stands to
eliminate the pool of capital needed to invest in workforce, as well as
transformational projects that lead to new, more advanced steel grades and
needed decarbonization technologies.”
“The Integrated Iron & Steel rule proposes
technically unachievable standards, including a radical reduction in opacity
limits and a suite of brand-new hazardous air pollutant limits affecting blast
furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces in places like Cleveland and Middletown,
Ohio; Dearborn, Michigan; the Mon Valley in Pennsylvania and several other
locations throughout America’s industrial Midwest. The promulgation of even one
of these rules would cause major hardship and financial drain on these companies;
the combination of the three will have far-reaching, adverse consequences that
will threaten the viability of the two remaining U.S.-based integrated steel
companies.”
They made the argument that
upgrading pollution abatement at these facilities would take investment dollars
away from upgrading other aspects of modernizing the plants, including
decarbonizing them (which could also involve pollution reduction). Preventing
real air quality concerns with potential health effects should, of course,
trump carbon emissions concerns. They also argued that the high costs to ensure
compliance will make the plants less competitive with foreign plants, including
Chinese plants.
Other facilities with similar
discrepancies between observed and estimated pollution levels included several
chemical plants and some steel mills. A Dow Chemical facility in Plaquemine,
Louisiana, had levels of vinyl chloride 156 times higher and levels of ethylene
dichloride 1,033 times higher than EPA estimates based on the plant’s
estimates. Another plant had high levels of ethylene oxide at seven times the
standard set by the EPA. A plastics plant's ethylene dichloride levels were 69
times higher than estimates.
Cary Secrest, a former EPA
employee who spent 20 years inspecting industrial plants and now works at a
company that measures pollution, noted:
“I don’t think that companies are deliberately trying to
underestimate emissions. I just think that it’s impossible without actual
measurements.”
One issue that needs to be
addressed with chemical plants and coke plants is the pervasive leaks of
various gases at the plants. More direct monitoring needs to be done to
accurately assess and document the leaks. Monitoring is not too expensive, but
replacing all the leaking equipment is a major cost. Often, the issue with
these plants is one of maintenance of aging plants. The estimated levels of
some plants are at the current EPA limits, so the observable monitors being higher
brings most plants out of compliance.
The Trump EPA is currently evaluating the
Clairton Works application for a two-year
exemption.
References:
The
EPA Let Companies Estimate Their Own Pollution Levels. We Discovered Real
Emissions Are Far Worse. Lisa Song. ProPublica. October 30, 2025. Air
Pollution From Industrial Facilities Is Far Worse Than Estimated — ProPublica
U.S.
Steel restarting battery at Clairton plant more than two months after deadly
explosion. Mike Darnay and Ricky Sayer, CBS News. Updated on: October 23, 2025.
U.S.
Steel restarting battery at Clairton plant more than two months after deadly
explosion - CBS Pittsburgh
Explosions
at U.S. Steel Clairton plant kill 2 and injure at least 10, officials say. Garrett
Behanna, Chris Hoffman, Ricky Sayer, and Michael Guise. CBS News. Updated on:
August 12, 2025. Explosions
at U.S. Steel Clairton plant kill 2 and injure at least 10, officials say - CBS
Pittsburgh
March
2024 letter from five Democratic Senators on steel industry rules. March
2024 letter from five Democratic Senators on steel industry rules |
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