The Erie Coke plant has a long list of violations from the DEP. These new violations were issued based on DEP’s recent inspections of the plant.
According to DEP documents, they issued a violation on June 4th after reviewing the plants quarterly compliance reports. DEP issued another violation on June 5th after inspectors noticed visible fugitive emissions from the coke oven gas collector. On June 10th, the plant was cited for the percent of door leaks were also higher than the level permitted, along with two other violations.
The latest violation which was issued on Friday is for fugitive emissions again exceeding a specified level during coke pushing from an oven. DEP even issued a compliance docket saying no operating permit or plan approval can be issued to Erie coke until these violations are resolved. Erie Coke has appealed that docket.
The DEP shared a statement with us regarding their actions on Erie Coke that reads in part:
“DEP is taking every lawful step to ensure that Erie coke is complying with state and federal environmental laws. The compliance docket notice, while appealed, signals to Erie coke it cannot get its permit renewed when violations persist.”
The executive director for Group Against Smog and Pollution says it’s critical for Erie residents to be the eyes and ears for the DEP. “They only have so many inspectors and there aren’t that many air quality monitors in Erie County, so they can’t be everywhere at once. So it’s very critical that community members are reporting when they are seeing or smelling something of concern,” said Rachel Filippini, executive director at GASP.
We did reach out to the Erie Coke Plant and they declined to comment on the violations.
