Steel plant settles suit... Pacific Steel agrees to pay $150,000 in fines
By Doug Oakley / Daily New Staff Writer
Pacific Steel Casting in Berkeley has settled a second lawsuit over allegations it is not doing enough to curb pollution at its Second Street foundry.
In the latest settlement, the company agreed to pay the Bay Area Air Quality Management District $150,000 and to install a hood to capture particulates coming out of one of its three plants. After Pacific Steel gets permits to install the new hood, it has nine months to complete construction, according to the air district.
"Even though the lawsuit is settled, we will be there to make sure the terms and conditions of the lawsuit are complied with and to ensure they are not violating any other emissions requirements through any of the permits they hold with the district," Karen Schkolnick, a spokeswoman for the air district said.
Berkeley residents have complained for years about a foul odor emanating from the plant, an emission they suspect is unhealthy.
The air district sued Pacific Steel in August 2006 alleging it failed to meet deadlines for reporting how much it pollutes and for installing a carbon filter device at one of its plants.
Pacific Steel settled a different lawsuit in January with Communities for a Better Environment over allegations it violated the federal Clean Air Act. In that settlement, the company agreed to pay $350,000 to fund air pollution reduction measures for three years and to avoid using dirty or oily scrap metal when making new steel castings.
The company also agreed to start using a new binder to hold its steel casting molds together, and is seeking permits from the air district to start using the binder. The company suspects the binder it uses causes the offensive odors.
Meanwhile, 14 small-claims cases against Pacific Steel are moving through Alameda County Superior Court. Those cases were brought by Berkeley residents who claim the company is a public nuisance because the odor it generates interferes with the enjoyment of their lives and property. Each is seeking the maximum $7,500 penalty from Pacific Steel. The hearing is scheduled for May 30.
Pacific Steel said the court-ordered changes are helping it clean up its act. "All of these things together will add up to a significant reduction (in pollution)," company spokeswoman Elisabeth Jewel said. "It's a huge step forward."
But community activists who have been fighting the company are not satisfied yet.
"These things look really good on paper, but they are not getting at the root of the problem," said Denny Larson, executive director of Global Community Monitoring, which received a $25,000 air district grant to independently test the air around the foundry. "You need to start at the end of the pipe and see what's coming out, then rethink the whole process from the beginning."
Larson said changing the binders is a good example of the process being rethought. "But there are other points in their process that create pollution," Larson said. "You have to look at everything in the process."
L A Wood, a Berkeley activist and a Pacific Steel watchdog for a decade, called the $150,000 settlement with the air district "chump change. No matter what you put on the plant for emission suppression, you have to be reminded that it is a foundry, and it will always be a foundry with no buffer to a residential area," Wood said. "What a reality. And there are four child care centers nearby."
Pacific Steel Settles with Air Quality District
By Riya Bhattacharjee May 4, 2007 Berkeley Daily Planet
The country’s third largest steel foundry agreed to a settlement with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Tuesday, which requires it to install a capture hood to control emissions and pay $150,000 in fines to the air district, though not all critics were satisfied by the agreement.
The air district had sued West-Berkeley-based Pacific Steel Company (PSC) in August for failing to meet deadlines for reporting air emissions and violating the schedule contained in a settlement agreement designed in December 2005 to resolve an ongoing series of air quality complaints.
The suit, which was filed in Alameda County Superior Court, sought civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each day that the emissions inventory was not submitted and asked that PSC be ordered to install a carbon absorption filtering system at Plant 3 as originally scheduled.
Plant 3 was identified by the district as the source of the maximum complaints from neighbors who have repeatedly asked for tighter regulation of the facility.
“The air district sued PSC in August for allegedly missing a whole series of deadlines, but the company disagreed,” said Elizabeth Jewel of Aroner, Jewel & Ellis Partners, the company’s public relations consultants, to the Planet Wednesday. “Specifically, they alleged that we missed a deadline of October 15, 2006, when in fact the lawsuit was filed in August. It was in the best interest of both the parties to come to an agreement.
PSC agreed to install a new hood which will capture fugitive emissions from the electric arc furnace and direct them to an existing ventilation system through a carbon filter.” Jewel added that the new hood would be set up as soon as PSC received a permit from the City of Berkeley.
Other improvements announced by the steel foundry to control emissions in West Berkeley include:
• Use of a new binder in the sand molds that significantly reduces volatile organic compounds.
• Upgrading the baghouse in Plant 1 including related capture hood and ductwork
• A new capture hood over the electric arc furnace in Plant 3
PSC and non-profit Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) filed a consent decree in Federal Court in February that would bring about specified emissions reductions, create a scrap metal inspection program, and establish a joint consultation committee to recommend and oversee ongoing pollution reduction efforts.
A reserve fund of $350,000 was also created for selected projects to achieve a reduction in emissions levels at the facility.
CBE had sued PSC in July alleging that the steel foundry violated the air district’s permit with respect to the amount of emissions from the steel foundry in Berkeley.
Although PSC officials said in a statement that the improvements planned on Tuesday were a major step toward reducing emissions, community members disagreed.
“The $150,000 is meaningless if you think about the negative impacts PSC’s emissions have had on West Berkeley for ages,” said environmentalist LA Wood, who installed an air monitor to measure PSC emission levels with the help of community members in April. “Pacific Steel has not at all been forthcoming about any of their regulatory documents for at least a decade and the [district] has done nothing about it either. I think the Air District should be fined some money also. We know no more about PSC than we did ten years ago. This is indeed very shameful.”
PSC’s proposed change in its binders has been demanded for a long time by the West Berkeley Alliance for Clean Air and Safe Jobs, as part of a comprehensive Toxic Use Reduction (TUR) approach.
“TUR requires open communication, honesty and collaboration among all stakeholders,” said Janice Schroeder of the Alliance in an email to the Planet. “As in past years, Pacific Steel is moving in the right direction, but only under pressure from lawsuits, and the industry is not yet fully transparent and collaborative with the whole community.”
Schroeder added that PSC’s improvements were welcome but long overdue. “However, the community's concerns will not be easily allayed,” she said. “If Pacific Steel continues to cool castings outside, away from pollution control equipment, and to operate with its huge doors open, the clean-up effort will not work. According to Pacific Steel’s 2004 report to the California Air Resources Board, it releases 400 pounds of pollution daily into the air. How much will be removed by the industry's proposed ‘significant’ decrease in pollution?”
