BREAKING: Allegheny County Health Department Investigating Breakdown at U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works

The Allegheny County Health Department is investigating a breakdown at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works facility last night, as well as elevated concentrations of both hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and sulfur dioxide (S02) at its Liberty air quality monitor, according to a press release issued Tuesday.

Here is the statement:

Statement from ACHD on US Steel's Clairton Coke Works Breakdown

PITTSBURGH – Last evening there was an issue at the Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, according to breakdown reports submitted to the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) by US Steel.

The reports indicate there was elevated sulfur levels in coke oven gas while repairs took place within a control room. The incident occurred on June 2nd at 7:08 pm and it was reported that all equipment was back online on June 3rd at 3:05 am.

The preliminary report says during the breakdown, control room five was shut down and bypassed meaning that Coke oven gas was only partially treated by control rooms one and two. As a result, the gas produced during coke-making - called coke oven gas - was only partly cleaned by the remaining control systems. Control room five removes harmful chemicals like hydrogen sulfide and ammonia from the gas. U.S. Steel has seven days to submit a full report explaining what happened.

During the breakdown a significant spike of hydrogen sulfide and sulfur dioxide were measured at the ACHD Liberty Monitor. 

The highest hourly H2S concentration measured at the ACHD Liberty Monitor occurred on June 2nd at 9:00 PM at 32 ppb. For H2S, the ability to smell it and the state regulatory level is 5 ppb. Allegheny County is normally below 1 ppb, see Hydrogen Sulfide - Allegheny County, PA.

The highest hourly sulfur dioxide (SO2) concentration during the breakdown was 47 ppb on June 2nd at 10:00 pm. As a comparison, SO2 was at 1 ppb at the same location at 1:00 pm today.

The Allegheny County Health Department is at Clairton for a pre-planned stack test today and is gathering additional information on the breakdown as well.

For more information regarding issues within the Clairton Coke Works facility reach out to US Steel.

The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) will continue to investigate the breakdown.

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Some needed context: This was the third straight day that H2S exceeded the state limit.

And for those asking, “Yeah, but where is the H2S coming from exactly.”...

According to a 2022 31-page study conducted by the Allegheny County Health Department, several years’ worth of H2S exceedances in the Mon Valley “can be attributed entirely to emissions from U.S. Steel’s Clairton coking facility.” 

Despite U.S. Steel scapegoating landfill facilities, we want to point out that the study also stated: “ACHD did not identify evidence of any other source contributing to the exceedances.”

“Residents deserve to know why these air pollution events keep happening and more importantly what concrete steps are being taken to address this serious public health issue,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said.

GASP thanks the department for its transparency and public facing communication on this and hope to see that trend continue.

We continue to follow the issue closely and will update this blog as new details become available.

Editor's Note: Wanna better understand our H2S issue? Here's an explainer that our team put together.