Damage reported at U.S. Steel facility in Braddock, followed by increase in air pollution

An incident over the weekend at the Edgar Thomson Steel Works facility in Braddock resulted in damage to the building, described as a hole.

U.S. Steel submitted a breakdown report to the Allegheny County Health Department, saying the incident occurred at 7 a.m. Sunday. It did not offer specific details as to what occurred.

The county said Tuesday that U.S. Steel tarped the hole until a permanent repair can be made, and production has been slowed. Required pollution monitors were not damaged by the issue, the county said.

U.S. Steel spokesperson Amanda Malkowski said in a statement the Edgar Thomson facility — which houses its basic oxygen process equipment — experienced “minor damage” to the building. There were no injuries and no environmental impact.

“Production slowed briefly so temporary repairs could be made and final repairs are in the process of being completed,” she said. “U.S. Steel filed the required breakdown report with the Allegheny County Health Department of the incident, in accordance with regulations.”

The ACHD will continue investigating the breakdown report, the department said Tuesday.

Two days following the incident — in the early morning hours on Tuesday — the ACHD said it received three sulfur dioxide exceedance alerts from the North Braddock monitoring station.

The alerts, which help inform the ACHD Air Quality team of potential issues in the area, are part of the department’s ongoing monitoring program, and they went off at 1, 2 and 4 a.m.

During the same time period, hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide levels were also elevated from their typical levels, the department reported.

The levels of all three air pollutants have been measured in “low concentration” as of 9 a.m. Tuesday at the North Braddock monitoring station, but the department said the situation is being investigated.

Hourly monitored data for the air pollutants can be viewed on the ACHD daily summary report by location. And the department said hourly readings of hydrogen sulfide levels are also available using the air quality dashboard.

“ACHD has been in contact with pollution sources in the area to determine whether any local operations could have caused the exceedances,” the department said in a release.

Though the air quality exceedance alerts happened two days after and just north of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works incident, the county did not comment on a potential link between the two.

Health department spokesperson Ronnie Das said the exceedances are under investigation.

“We cannot provide any further comments at this time,” he said Tuesday.