The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening its grip on the steel industry with a new set of rules designed to reduce air pollution in the predominantly low-income neighborhoods near steel plants, the Guardian reported.
The problem is coke ovens, in which plants heat up coal to produce a harder material called coke used in steel production. The process releases all kinds of air pollution, including mercury, benzene, and lead — all dangerous for humans. The gas from coke ovens is a known carcinogen, according to the EPA.
There were already limits on pollution produced by these contaminants, but there were also loopholes — such as waiving limits when a coke oven is malfunctioning, according to the Guardian. The new rules are firmer, eliminating those loopholes, requiring testing at the "fenceline" around plants, and mandating plants cut any excessive pollution identified through testing.
This is great news for people in the communities located at the edge of the fenceline who have to breathe the toxic air being released from these plants. The Guardian reported that the cancer risk in these neighborhoods is unacceptably high at 50 in 1 million.
It's sadly common across America to find similar health risks in low-income areas. One region of Louisiana has been nicknamed "Cancer Alley," a Minneapolis neighborhood is called the "Arsenic Triangle," and the mining town of Picher, Oklahoma, has been called "the most toxic town in America" — all due to pollution from industrial facilities.
"People have long faced significant health risks, like cancer, due to coke oven pollution," said Patrice Simms, Earthjustice's vice president for healthy communities, according to the Guardian. She also called the new rules "crucial for safeguarding communities and workers near coke ovens."
Not everyone is happy about the change. The Guardian reported that a U.S. Steel spokesperson told The Allegheny Front, "The costs would be unprecedented and unknown because there are no proven control technologies for certain hazardous air pollutants." He also warned of unforeseen environmental consequences.
But Adrienne Lee, an Earthjustice attorney, told the Guardian the rule is based on the industry's own data that it gave the EPA. "I find it hard to believe [the limits] will be difficult to meet," Lee said.
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