Mike Campbell stood on a set of old railroad tracks near the Erie Coke Corp. plant and peered through a thin line of trees toward an open pit filled with piles of black coke and pools of murky water.
The standing water is there every time Campbell, a Mercyhurst University science and biology professor, visits the east Erie bayfront site.
“It appears that is the water table, where the ground is just saturated with water,” Campbell said. “There is nothing preventing that contaminated water from entering the water table and it would be a miracle if it traveled anywhere other than Lake Erie.”
Campbell has been monitoring Erie Coke’s emissions for years and in August helped to create the nonprofit group Hold Erie Coke Accountable. The organization’s goal is to ensure that Erie Coke complies with all state and federal environmental regulations.
It’s not an easy goal to achieve. Erie Coke has a long history of pollution violations and was nearly shut down in 2010 by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection before a court-ordered settlement was reached.
But recent developments have convinced Campbell and HECA cofounder Benedictine Sister Pat Lupo that they will soon have a realistic shot at forcing Erie Coke to comply.
“I call it our carpe diem moment,” Campbell said. “We have an opportunity to seize the day.”
Erie Coke is working under expired Title V operating and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits and has applied for new ones. The Title V permit regulates the facility’s air discharge, while the NPDES permit regulates its discharge of cooling water.
As part of each permit’s application process, the DEP will schedule a public hearing at which citizens can testify about Erie Coke and its effect on the environment, DEP Press Secretary Elizabeth Rementer said.
“That is our galvanizing moment,” Lupo said. “Six months ago, we thought the permit renewals were imminent.”
However, Erie Coke’s application processes for the permits were delayed after the DEP issued a 16-page administrative order on Feb. 4. It requires the company to fix a number of ongoing violations at the plant, including the release of “visible emissions” from its smokestack and coke ovens that exceed those allowed under the Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act.
Erie Coke has appealed the order, stating that a number of its requirements are “vague, unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.” The company also argues that the DEP abused its discretion in several areas and that the order would place unreasonable and unlawful financial demands on Erie Coke.
The appeal will be heard by the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board. No date has been set but discovery in the case, where the parties exchange evidence, must be completed by Sept. 4.
DEP officials later sent a letter to Anthony Nearhoof, Erie Coke plant superintendent, notifying him of additional violations to the plant’s operating permit that the DEP claims occurred between Jan. 10 and March 27.
They include a wastewater tank that leaked on March 19 and later ruptured on March 31, spilling an unspecified amount of water that contained “among other regulated substances, benzene and naphthalene, ammonia and cyanide” onto the ground, according to DEP documents.
Other violations include control equipment issues, possible air contaminants from Erie Coke detected outside the property and coke contaminants found on the ground near the East Avenue Boat Launch. They were detected during DEP inspections at and around Erie Coke, the documents stated.
“There will be no timetable for a public meeting or a decision on the (permit renewals) until Erie Coke has addressed the outstanding violations and the requirements of DEP’s Order,” Rementer said in an email.
An unidentified person who answered the phone at Erie Coke refused to comment for this article.
Both Campbell and Lupo said they believe delaying the public hearings will help their efforts. Erie Coke’s most recent issues have increased public scrutiny and probably were a reason why at least 120 people attended HECA’s community impact update meeting about Erie Coke on Tuesday at East Middle School, they said.
“The recent events have given us tremendous momentum,” Campbell said. “We were floundering a bit around Christmas in terms of reaching the community. The new violations and the issue where Erie Coke spilled material along the Port Access Road in November were a real turning point.”
HECA’s next step is to encourage local businesses to join its effort to force Erie Coke to abide by the regulations.
Campbell and Lupo were encouraged to see Erie City Council vote unanimously to send a formal letter to the DEP “regarding the toxic pollution emerging from” Erie Coke. Erie County Council unanimously passed a similar resolution that calls on the DEP and the Erie County Department of Health to force Erie Coke into strict compliance of air and water regulations.
“We’re happy to see city and county council speak out,” Lupo said. “Now we need Erie’s business and medical communities to stop being silent about what is happening at Erie Coke.”
But Campbell and Lupo are not calling for the owners of Erie Coke to close its plant, which is what they did to Tonawanda Coke, Erie Coke’s sister plant located outside of Buffalo.
Tonawanda Coke closed in October, a week after filing for bankruptcy protection. A federal judge in Buffalo in 2014 ordered Tonawanda Coke to pay $25 million in fines after a jury in 2013 found the company violated the federal Clean Air Act and federal Resource Conservation Recovery Act, which involves hazardous waste.
“We want Erie Coke to clean up its act,” Lupo said. “We want the DEP to issue permits with teeth in them, and then enforce those permits.”
