MiddletownJournal.com

HAVERHILL, Ohio — Business is brisk at PJ's Country Kitchen on Gallia Pike where owner Phyllis Lynch serves up hot breakfasts and lunches to many construction workers and employees from the Duke Energy, Dow Chemical and Sunoco Chemical plants nearby.

"If you're going to eat anything around here, you won't find anything better," said Lynch, a native West Virginian who has called Ohio home for the past three decades.

Lynch can often gauge the pulse of Haverhill — a quiet hamlet of 500 about 20 miles east of Portsmouth — by chatting up the regulars who grab a stool at the counter or one of the diner's nine booths and tables. A lot of the conversation these days surrounds SunCoke Energy Inc.'s new state-of-the-art cokemaking plant which was recently built on 267 acres.

SunCoke, a subsidiary of Sunoco Oil Co., is in talks with West Chester Twp.-based AK Steel Corp. about building a similar, but smaller, facility on 157 acres just off of Ohio 4 in Middletown. The development, if it happens, would represent a $300 million investment and could create up to 100 new jobs locally.

Lynch said shortly after SunCoke's facility arrived in Haverhill there were complaints by some residents about the noise generated by the 100 or so ovens that annually produce about 550,000 tons of coke — a key component in steelmaking.

SunCoke officials tout that the company's cokemaking and heat recovery process is environmentally friendly. They said the process incinerates waste products and coke oven emissions and converts it into steam to generate electricity.

A customer, who declined to give his name, said some residents who lived north of the plant complained that when the wind blows, dust and dirt from the plant can get into their homes. Despite the noise, dust and other issues, the man said there are still some longtime residents who refuse to move or sell their homes.

"Most people who have lived here all of their lives and were raised here are fighting this," he said.

So is the case in Middletown where residents living near SunCoke's proposed site have declared they will do whatever it takes to stop the development, even if it means going to court.

But not everyone sees plants such as these as bad neighbors.

Louise Caserta has lived in the Haverhill area since 1983 and her home is within eyesight of the coke ovens and a farm field. Caserta said she sees more dust coming from equipment working on the nearby farmland than from the coke plant.

Harry Balmer, pastor of Midland Missionary Baptist Church, which sits west of the coke oven site, said he's heard the complaints about noise and dust, but his church hasn't been affected.

A Russian-owned steel company, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel, is also reportedly looking at building a new steel plant in Haverhill. Balmer said developers have paid some residents for options to buy their property if the project comes to fruition.

He said his church has given the developers plans for a new church that would be relocated a few miles east of its current location.

"They're dealing with us," he said. "If they build our building, we'll be satisfied."

The quaintness of Haverhill, a small community nestled along the Ohio River and a stone's throw from the hills of northern Kentucky, doesn't belie the tremendous amount of new development taking place there.

The town has several small churches, a cemetery and a post office inside PJ's Country Kitchen. However, it is also home to a Sunoco Oil Co. chemical plant, SunCoke Energy and soon possibly a new steel mill.

SunCoke plans to complete construction of a second set of 100 coke ovens — about a $230 million investment — by June. The new ovens would produce about the same amount of coke as Haverhill's existing facility and generate about 46 megawatts of electricity.

A third set of coke ovens could be constructed later if all the company's plans come to fruition, officials said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2871 or erichter@coxohio.com.