Looks Like It's A Go

MIDDLETOWN — SunCoke Energy has received its air permit to build a new $360 million coke oven facility in Middletown, Gov. Ted Strickland told the Journal in an interview this afternoon, Feb. 9.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued the permit late today, Feb. 9. Director Chris Korleski said the permit’s issuance will allow SunCoke to begin construction immediately.

Strickland said he believes “that all of the obstacles have been dealt with, or removed or answered or dealt with” and that construction on the new coke facility, a vital steelmaking raw material, will begin soon.

The SunCoke plant, set to be built off Yankee Road in Middletown, has been plagued with a myriad of issues since it was first announced two years ago. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency issued a draft permit in July 2009 for a New Source Review permit, the second for the facility after its first-issued minor source air permit was the subject of several appeals and a Clean Air Act lawsuit.

Korleski said the state agency’s staff devoted an extensive amount of time answering comments and questions submitted on the NSR permit and worked with the U.S. EPA to ensure the permit met all Clean Air Act requirements and was protective of public health. By issuing the permit, SunCoke has agreed to comply solely with the NSR requirements, meaning its previously-approved netting permit is no longer usable.

The NSR permit requires more stringent pollution controls, Lowest Achievable Emission Rates (LAERS) and use of the best available technology to control emissions. While some opponents have argued that the new SunCoke plant’s technology was inferior to that planned for an FDS coke plant to be built in Toledo, Mike Hopkins, vice president of permitting at the Ohio EPA, said he believed this facility to be “better” due to more stringent requirements in the NSR permit.

The governor said his office has been “in frequent contact” with SunCoke and AK Steel, a partner in the project.

“Just let me emphasize if I can, this facility will be the cleanest coke plant in America. It is using the most advance technology available. It will be constructed with all of those concerns in mind and so that the environment will be protected and it will be a major boost I hope for the Middletown community,” Strickland said in a phone interview Feb. 9.

The fact that AK Steel has signed a 20-year contract with SunCoke to purchase all of the coke and energy generated by the new facility for its Middletown Works plant bodes well for the future of manufacturing in Ohio, Strickland said.

“Ohio has been and must remain a manufacturing state. In order to be a state that produces steel we need facilities like this facility. It is an essential part of what I believe is a part of our economy that is vital,” he said “This is just one more essential component that Ohio will have as we continue the fight to produce steel and make sure Ohio is a state where we make things and manufacture product.”

While Strickland said he was aware of the objections posed by the city of Monroe and several residents there regarding the potential health hazards from such a facility, he said he believes the Middletown plant will be state-of-the-art and pose no threat to human health. While technology will be similar to that at SunCoke’s Haverhill Coke Company facility in Scioto County, which has received several Notices of Violation from the Ohio EPA for excess emissions, the governor said he believes monitoring at the local facility will protect against similar issues.

Some new requirements of the issued permit include the purchase of an extensive network of ambient air quality monitors and limiting the facility to no more than eight days of using its bypass emissions stacks per each of the five heat recovery steam generators for maintenance issues, Hopkins said.

Korleski said in his 30-year career, this is the most air monitors the Ohio EPA has ever required for one facility. SunCoke will be required to purchase two particulate PM 10 monitors, four PM 2.5 monitors, one sulfur dioxide monitor and two Volatile Organic Compound monitors. This is in addition to the five air monitors already in operation in Butler County, Hopkins said.

The monitors will be sited and monitored by the Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services, the Ohio EPA's local agency. Hopkins said exact locations for the monitors are still being decided, but Amanda Elementary School remains on the top of the list for placements.