While some people see Saffrin as having been dealt a bad hand with Tonawanda Coke, he’s responsible for a similar factory – Erie Coke in Erie, Pa.

Erie Coke paid more than $4.8 million in fines related to federal environmental charges between 2010 and 2017, according to Good Jobs First, an economic development policy group that tracks companies with records of environmental and safety violations.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency sued Erie Coke in 2016, saying the company had failed to prevent emissions of the cancer-causing chemical benzene. In April 2017, officials of the EPA and U.S. Justice Department confirmed a court-authorized search was conducted at the company’s offices in Erie as part of an ongoing investigation.

And on Sept. 7 of this year, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection sent Erie Coke a letter notifying the company of two air pollution violations from the previous month, according to the agency’s website. Pennsylvania officials said the company has been cited for violating state environmental regulations a dozen times over the past two years.