Members of the community group Hold Erie Coke Accountable rallied alongside concerned residents Monday morning to support the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s aggressive enforcement action against Erie Coke Corp. and to “insist that they not accept a monetary payoff.”
The demonstration took place outside the courthouse where lawyers for DEP and Erie Coke sparred last week over the department’s denial of the company’s air pollution operating permit application.
Those proceedings continued Monday.
It also comes in the wake of news that Erie Coke Corp. made a $3.1 million settlement offer to the DEP—one the department declined to accept. DEP is expected to release today a list of items that would need to be rectified prior to the authorization of any settlement with the coke-making facility.
DEP and Erie Coke also appeared before the Environmental Hearing Board last week, where they argued the merits of allowing the company to continue operating while legal issues related to the department’s permit application denial and associated legal issues are hashed out.
“Erie Coke has operated for years by paying small and large fines and have never fixed their systems to provide a business that is within regs for the long term,” HECA said in a written statement released Monday. “With the news of a proposal for a ‘settlement’ at Erie Coke, we all have to be alarmed and outraged.”
The group said the trust has been lost between the community and the company, which they said, “shreds the idea of truthfulness and ignores the health and harms it has inflicted on the Erie community. Monday is the best day to show our support as the judge may arrive at a decision on the plant operation that day. We must hold Erie Coke accountable!”
HECA leaders said while Erie Coke is publicly claiming that DEP’s denial of the operating permit “willfully ignores Erie Coke’s substantial steps toward improving compliance” the company still hasn’t substantiated those claims.
