As a court battle over the plant’s future continues, activists gathered Monday to urge the DEP not to settle with Erie Coke.
An emission that wafted over Erie Coke Corp.’s property line on June 13 was “the most alarming” violation a state inspector has seen in the seven years he has observed the coke plant, he testified Monday.
Daniel Brophy, an air quality inspector with the state Department of Environmental Protection, described the emission as “fugitive coke oven gas” that formed a cloud and traveled east from the plant, eventually dissipating near the smokestacks at the former Hammermill plant.
“That, to me, was probably the most concerning thing that I’ve witnessed inspecting Erie Coke,” Brophy said.
Brophy testified for several hours Monday before Environmental Hearing Board Judge Steven C. Beckman, who is weighing whether to let the coke plant at the foot of East Avenue remain open while it fights the DEP’s July 1 decision to deny the plant its operating permit.
Under questioning from DEP lawyer Carl Ballard, Brophy described a number of environmental violations he has observed at the plant, including emissions that exceeded the 20 percent opacity limit set by the state.
Ballard showed two videos Brophy took during inspections at the plant in September 2018. Both videos showed emissions that exceeded the opacity limit during a “push,” or the release of heated coke from a coke oven after it has been baked at extremely high temperatures.
Coke is a derivative of coal that is used in several industries, including in the production of sugar.
