An early-morning power outage Monday at U.S. Steel's Clairton Plant affected operations and resulted in coke-oven gases being flared from the stacks and batteries of the coke works in the Mon Valley, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.
The outage occurred at 5:30 a.m., and power "was recently restored," the health department said in a statement issued shortly before 11 a.m. In its statement, the health department said the plant is "working to return to normal operations" but provided no timetable.
The Clairton Works manufactures coke, which is a purified, hotter-burning form of coal that is used in steelmaking. Untreated coke gases contain pollutants that can cause lung irritation and trigger asthma and other ailments.
Air quality monitors around the plant did not detect "any adverse conditions" after the outage, and health department officials said they believe the outage "will either not affect or only minimally affect" emissions from the plant.
The department's air quality program is observing the monitors, and the department will remain in contact with plant officials throughout the rest of the day, according to the statement.
The Breathe Project, which advocates for air quality and lobbies for stricter regulations on commercial polluters, released a statement Monday in which it criticized U.S. Steel for the emissions, noting that the company has faced millions in federal and state fines in recent months for air-pollution violations at Clairton and other plants at its Mon Valley Works.
