ERIE COKE CORPORATION’S “FLAGRANT DISREGARD” OF ENVIRONMENT SPURS GREEN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA TO CALL FOR TEMPORARY INJUNCTION TO CLOSE PLANT
On March 10, Erie residents were horrified by the release of a noxious cloud of coke oven gases and fine black particles as it spread across the city in an industrial “upset” from the beleaguered eastside Erie Coke Corporation.
If this situation were not bad enough, Erie Coke’s revelation in the past month that it has spewed toxic pollutants not previously measured by either the EPA or DEP was described by Freda Tarbell, the DEP’s spokesperson, as “documentation that DEP and EPA didn’t have earlier.”
Last year Erie Coke Corporation was levied a $6.1 million dollar fine by the DEP for “flagrant disregard” of environmental laws. A criminal investigation against the plant’s president and environmental compliance manager are also being considered by the EPA.
“This is an outrage against the community,” said I.K. Samways, Chair of the Green Party of Pennsylvania. “The EPA and the Pennsylvania DEP is in violation of its own environmental mandate to safeguard communities from appalling violations of environmental law.”
In a recent Erie Times-News article on Erie Coke Corporation, reporter Robb Frederick asks, “So why is Erie Coke still open?”
So too do a coalition of local Erie environmental groups furious over EPA and DEP foot-dragging over Erie Coke’s repeated violations of state and federal environmental law.
That is why Keep Erie’s Environment Protected (KEEP), the Erie County Environmental Coalition, the Gaia Defense League, and the Green Party of Pennsylvania are calling for an immediate temporary injunction against Erie Coke that will end its egregious violation of the law and public safety.
“Erie Coke must stop poisoning our community immediately,” said Tim Reim, Erie County Green Party chair. “A temporary injunction must be submitted by the EPA and DEP against Erie Coke without any further delay. Banks of ovens without any air pollution filtering equipment is proof alone of ‘imminent and substantial endangerment’ to nearby residents.”
A recent lawsuit filed by the federal EPA and state DEP on September 22 garnered a ho-hum response by Kelly Burch, the DEP’s regional director. On evidence that emissions from the ovens had exceeded federal pollution limits at least 31 times since May of 2008, Burch blandly stated, “They need to do a better job of controlling that.”
Reim, who also serves as the media coordinator for the local grassroots environmental group KEEP went on to say, “There is no evidence whatsoever that the owner of Erie Coke, J.D. Crane, has any intention of meeting the environmental air-quality standards demanded by both the EPA and DEP.”
In an Erie Times-News article published March 20, Randy Barnes, president of KEEP said, “We are very concerned about the actions of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection because we think what they do now is going to give us a real snapshot of how effective they are as an agency at protecting the citizens from this type of corporate injustice.”
KEEP has been battling since the summer of 2007 to prevent the construction of what would be the world’s largest tire incinerator in a low-income residential section of the city.
Representatives of the various local environmental groups are pledging to begin a campaign of citizen action intended to make the EPA and DEP petition the courts for the granting of a temporary injunction to force Erie Coke to halt operations immediately.
GREEN PARTY OF PENNSYLVANIA
http://www.gpofpa.org
For Immediate Release:
Monday, March 22, 2010
Contacts:
I.K. Samways, GPPA Chair, 412-215-9161, isamways@aol.com
Katrina Brabam, GPPA Secretary, 412-327-5723, baatty@gmail.com
Tim Reim, Erie Green Party, 814-838-1193, Deaconb60@hotmail.com
814-572-6653, Deaconb60@gmail.com