U.S. Steel’s recent announcement of a $1 billion investment in the company’s Mon Valley Works was met with a positive response from politicians and steelworkers alike (“U.S. Steel announces $1B investment in Edgar Thomson, Clairton plants,” May 2, TribLIVE). But the giddiness surrounding the announcement obfuscates the chronic pollution and public health threats emanating from U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, which will not be addressed through these investments.
How can the region with failing air quality take a deep sigh of relief that U.S. Steel is here for the long run, and still not embrace the story the community is struggling to tell of its desire — and fundamental human right — to breathe clean air and to live in a healthy environment?
U.S. Steel will never occupy a space as a good neighbor to the region until it addresses the antiquated portions of its coking operation that are the sources of ongoing and repeated violations — more than 6,700 violations between January 2012 and May 2015 alone.
Until steelmaking in the Mon Valley can be truly modernized in a way that improves quality of life for suffering communities, sustainability at U.S. Steel — where jobs and environmental stewardship should go hand in hand — will remain elusive.
Jacquelyn Bonomo
Harrisburg
The writer is president and CEO of PennFuture (www.pennfuture.org).