SunCoke settlement awaits state approval

By Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer Updated 11:37 PM Tuesday, May 22, 2012

MONROE — The four-year legal battle over SunCoke Energy’s Middletown plant now appears close to over.

But the people with environmental concerns about the plant promise to hold it accountable for complying with regulations going forward.

Monroe City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to approve a settlement negotiated between the city, SunCoke Energy and other parties.

The joint settlement will lead to tighter environmental controls than the SunCoke Energy plant currently operates under, ongoing monitoring of air and noise pollution, and requires SunCoke to pay the $1.15 million cost of the city’s attorney fees, according to the agreement.

The Ohio Environmental Review Appeals Commission must now approve the settlement, which could happen within the week, said one of the city’s attorneys. ERAC is the organization which was to hear Monroe’s and others’ appeal of SunCoke’s air permit.

The state commission’s approval would put the litigation to rest, according to the city attorney and SunCoke Energy.

“I think it’s a good thing that they’re settling because I don’t know how you go up against big corporations and win,” said Becky Swick, a Monroe resident. “Knowing that they have eyes on them could help keep them in check.”

SunCoke Energy said its Middletown operations run under one of the nation’s most stringent operating permits for metallurgical coke plants under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act. SunCoke finished construction in 2011 of a $400 million coke plant on Yankee Road to supply AK Steel with coke, a raw material for steelmaking.

“Our company saw an opportunity to put costly and time consuming litigation behind us without significantly impacting our Middletown operations,” said SunCoke spokeswoman Anna Rozenich. “The technology that we have meets and sometimes exceeds the U.S. EPA Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards.”

Monroe Mayor Robert Routson said the settlement is as good as it can be and he’s satisfied.

Vice Mayor Bob Kelley and Councilwoman Suzi Rubin voted against the settlement. Kelley said he disagreed with the emergency legislation.

Said Councilman Steve Black, “I think what we’re proposed to be getting out of the settlement is in my opinion better than what we would have got had we gone all the way through the appeal, but I don’t think the fight’s over.”

Monroe resident Lisa Frye is a leader of SunCoke Watch Inc., another one of the parties in the case to fight the coke plant and which is part of the settlement. The rest of the parties that opposed the plant include Natural Resources Defense Council and Robert Snook.

“We will continue to hold them accountable. We will continue to hold them to the letter of the law,” Frye said. “What the settlement agreement does do is give us some provision. ...so some of the air pollution, some of the noise pollution that we are now subject to can be a little less.”