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Building Jobs and Clean AirNew Coke-making Facility Under ConstructionJobs and cleaner air are the joint result of a landmarkpollution control agreement for a $570 million projectto construct new coke and cogeneration plants for U.S.Steel Corp.’s Granite City Works in Illinois.“It’s all positive,’’ said Russ Saltsgaver, president of Local1899, the largest of the USW locals at the Granite City Works.The settlement tightens air pollution control permits andprovides a $5 million environmental fund for local projects toreduce air pollution and global warming greenhouse gases.In addition to U.S. Steel and a subsidiary of Sunoco Inc.,parties to the environmental settlement included the Sierra Cluband the American Bottom Conservancy, a local grass-rootsenvironmental organization.The USW, which has partnered with the Sierra Club in anational Blue Green Alliance, worked with both environmentalorganizations on the locallevel to advance the project.Ground was broken onMay 5.“Everybody is happy,”Saltsgaver said. “We’re ableto put in new coke-makingtechnology to make U.S.Steel efficient and not haveto depend on China or someother foreign entity for theircoke supply.”Alison Horton, SierraClub representative to theBlue Green Alliance, saidthe agreement is good for thecity, helps the environmentand is good for workers.“It’s win win win,’’she said.Metallurgical cokeGateway Energy and Coke Co., a wholly-owned unit ofSunoco’s SunCoke Energy Inc., will build a heat recovery cokemanufacturing facility contiguous to Granite City and willsupply U.S. Steel with metallurgical-grade coke and steam.The new facility will include 120 ovens capable of producingapproximately 650,000 tons of screened blast furnace cokeannually that will be sold to U.S. Steel under a 15-year contract.Steam from the facility will be used in a new cogenerationplant to be built and operated by U.S. Steel.Construction is expected to take about 18 months. Sunocosaid it will result in hundreds of temporary construction jobsand about 70 permanent operating and maintenance jobs.Once the SunCoke facility is constructed, Saltsgaver said hislocal will work to organize the new employees. The union hasa relationship with SunCoke at other facilities.“We would be more than happy to go in there and get cardcheck recognition, if not we’ll organize an election under the36 summer 2008 • USW@WorkNational Labor Relations Board,” he said.Saltsgaver and the environmentalgroups called the agreement a “landmark”settlement and said it resulted in whatappears to be the first permit in the countryto regulate fine particulates, knownas PM 2.5.Granite City has historically recordedhigh readings of PM 2.5, a pollutant thatcan cause heart and lung disease andpremature death. Those levels contributeto the entire St. Louis region failing tomeet federal air quality standards forfine particulates.“It’s allpositive.”Russ SaltsgaverLocal 1899 presidentDignitaries break ground for the construction of a heat recovery coke plant and acogeneration plant to serve the U.S. Steel Granite City Works. From left, IllinoisState Rep. Jay Hoffman, Granite City Mayor Ed Hagnauer, U.S. Steel COO JohnGoodish, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, SunCoke COO Mike Thomson andSharon Owen, general manager of the Granite City Works.(AP/Belleville News-Democrat photo by Derik Holtmann)Jobs and clean airThe Washington University Interdisciplinary EnvironmentalClinic assisted the effort by preparing comments on the permitsand participating in the negotiations.The clinic’s director, Maxine Lipeles, said the agreementends an 11-year period when federal and state agencies havevirtually ignored fine particulate matter in issuing permits.Sierra Club representative Bob Larson called the agreement“quite an achievement” and said the tighter permits and fundfor pollution control projects should help clean the air.“Granite City has long been known for its air pollution. Wehave many children here with asthma,” added Mark Feldworth,a Granite City resident and member of American BottomConservancy’s board.“We certainly want to keep jobs here, but it is important thatwe also have cleaner air for our families. We are hoping thisagreement will do both.”