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SunCoke’s clean air  proficiency in doubt

Group against plant in Middletown points to latest notice of violation company has received.

The Haverhill North Coke Facility owned by SunCoke Energy will double its capacity with the construction of the Haverhill 2 coke plant between Gallia Pike Road and U.S. 52 near the Ohio River in Scioto County. A large plume of steam is emitted from the working Haverhill facility Thursday, March 6, 2008.

Nick Graham The Haverhill North Coke Facility owned by SunCoke Energy will double its capacity with the construction of the Haverhill 2 coke plant between Gallia Pike Road and U.S. 52 near the Ohio River in Scioto County. A large plume of steam is emitted from the working Haverhill facility Thursday, March 6, 2008.

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer 1:40 AM Sunday, February 28, 2010

MIDDLETOWN — A string of alleged emissions violations at SunCoke Energy’s Franklin Furnace, Ohio, facility has cast a shadow of doubt for some over the company’s capability to meet requirements.

The latest violation sent Feb. 17 comes from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and alleges the SunCoke Haverhill North Coke Company’s P901 and P902 plants — similar to the $360 million plant to be built in Middletown — “violated and continues to violate” its bypass venting permit requirements. Since Jan. 1, 2009, SunCoke has failed to comply with its permit in at least 116 instances, emitting 594 percent tons more of particulate matter and 134 percent tons more sulfur dioxide through its bypass stacks than allowed, said Gina Harrison, an environmental scientist with the U.S. EPA’s Region 5 office.

The notice of violation (NOV), which includes data reported to the EPA by SunCoke, also claims the company was using more than one bypass stack at a time, also against regulations.

These alleged violations overlap an outstanding NOV issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in December for excess bypass emissions that has yet to be resolved.

While the U.S. EPA has not done a health study in Franklin Furnace, George Czerniak, chief of the air enforcement and compliance assurance branch for Region 5, said limits are in place because they have “underpinnings in protecting people’s health and welfare.”

Repeated calls to SunCoke officials were not returned.

Harrison said the company is still scheduling a time to meet with the U.S. EPA to discuss this latest NOV, Harrison said.

With a recently-issued New Source Review permit in hand to build its Middletown plant near Monroe’s border, Lisa Frye, president of SunCoke Watch Inc., said such violations make trusting the company to stay in compliance “ludicrous.”

“(This) couldn’t have come at a better time as far as the criticism all of those who have fought this plant have taken,” she said. “This is just one more example of why we can’t stop.”

To Chuck Inwood, a Monroe resident and member of SunCoke Watch, the latest NOV means either SunCoke’s design doesn’t work, their staff is incapable of operating the plant properly, or the company is “in willful disregard of the limits of the permit.”

“I think it is terrifying if we think that this same thing is going to be here next door to a school, next door to a nursing home,” he said. “I think anybody ought to be scared.”

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