U.S. Steel Hit with Class Action Over Alleged ‘Noxious Odors,’ ‘Fugitive Dust’ from Pennsylvania Steel Mill

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U.S. Steel Corporation faces a proposed class action that alleges “noxious odors” and “fugitive dust” emanating from the Edgar Thomson Works steel production facility have negatively impacted roughly 3,746 surrounding households.

The 17-page suit says that a strong “rotten egg smell” and cloudy, grey dust emanating from the Braddock, Pennsylvania facility have invaded the private properties of nearby residents, who say they can no longer enjoy their properties, open windows, use outdoor spaces or invite guests over.

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According to one resident’s account, on some nights she “can’t breathe because the odor is so bad.” Another citizen stated that their home’s exterior is covered with grey dust, and the interior “becomes dusty very quickly,” the suit relays.

The case relays that Edgar Thomson Works refines raw materials to produce steel slabs, which involves manufacturing processes that produce byproducts such as dust, noxious odors and gases, flames, smoke, plumes, ash, soot, slag, and iron and metallic particles. Procedures like desulfurization and the basic oxygen process (BOP) create significant odor and fugitive dust emissions, while vehicular traffic and the transportation of materials also contribute to the facility’s dust creation, the filing explains.

Per the complaint, the odor and dust emissions result from U.S. Steel’s failure to properly maintain, operate and construct its Allegheny County facility. More specifically, the facility fails to adequately maintain several of its major emission sources and its primary emissions system, and it fails to control emissions released while transporting slag and molten ore, the lawsuit alleges.

U.S. Steel “has acted, and continues to act, intentionally, negligently, and with conscious disregard to public health, safety, peace, comfort, and convenience,” the suit charges. “A properly operated, maintained, and/or constructed steel plant will not emit noxious odors and fugitive dust into the surrounding residential areas.”

As the case tells it, Edgar Thomson Works has an administrative record of emission incidents spanning “a well-documented history of failing to control the emissions generated by its operations.” For instance, the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) issued to U.S. Steel a Notice of Violation in 2017 for “excessive visible emissions, failure to maintain equipment and failure to certify compliance with the Plant’s Title V operating permit,” the filing says. 

The ACHD has received numerous complaints from surrounding residents regarding the invading emissions, including one account claiming the plant emits an odor so strong that it gave them a “headache almost immediately,” the suit alleges.

Additionally, the complaints states that in May 2022, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the ACHD required U.S. Steel to enter into a consent decree for its longstanding air pollution violations, demanding that the company pay a $1.5 million penalty and implement measures to mitigate its odor and dust emissions. 

The 2022 EPA report adds that “the one-mile radius around the facility is an area of potential environmental justice concern, exceeding the state average for the percentage of low-income populations and for minority populations.”

The lawsuit looks to represent those who have owned or rented residential property within one mile of U.S. Steel Corporation’s Braddock, Pennsylvania facility at any time since 2020.

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