Air pollution has triggered sky-high asthma rates near Pittsburgh. With politicians unwilling to confront US Steel after a factory fire, a county health agency is pushing unprecedented penalties against the $14 billion company.
CLAIRTON, Pennsylvania — Here in the steep hills of southwestern Pennsylvania, politicians are struggling to weigh the lives of sick children and elderly people against desperately needed jobs. And mostly, they're choosing the jobs.
A VOC monitor installed at Melanie Meade's home in Clairton.
At the end of January, US Steel reported profits of $1.15 billion for 2018, almost tripling the number from the previous year. That was actually less than Wall Street had hoped for, and its stock price dropped on the news. The company has estimated it would spend $40 million on repairs at the Clairton plant in the first quarter of 2019, with contractors working around the clock to replace the damaged desulfurization machines. A mechanical failure near a compressor filled with flammable gas likely sparked the blaze, the company has suggested. Now there are so many repair contractors that the steelworkers union had to put a sign up on its parking lot next to the plant telling them to park elsewhere, Furko said.
The meeting was filled with steelworkers waving “Jobs Worth Fighting For” and “Steel Strong” signs. “Simply put, if US Steel ends up idling batteries, our members will lose their jobs,” Furko, the union local head, said at the hearing.
“Our party is supposed to be pro-environment, but it is Democrats you hear talking about going along with US Steel,” Democratic state Rep. Summer Lee, who represents nearby Braddock, Pennsylvania, told BuzzFeed News. "We are like Flint, Michigan — this is just part of a larger pattern of environmental racism you can see when you step back and look at this from a wider perspective."
Yard signs at Melanie Meade's home.
Furko, the union local leader, told BuzzFeed News he wishes more people from Clairton worked at the plant, if nothing else because they would have an easy time making it to the facility in bad weather or emergencies. Past cost-cutting efforts at US Steel have hurt maintenance at the coke works, Furko said, and have ended past charitable support for local schools. At least 75% of the plant’s workers live in zip codes within 25 miles of the plant, he added.
Albert Presto's first name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.