Sierra Club to EPA: More Action Needed to Reduce Emissions from Iron, Steel Manufacturing

WASHINGTON, DC — On Tuesday, August 15, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a public hearing on its proposed rule to amend the 2003 National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for integrated iron and steel manufacturing facilities. The latest revision comes in response to a 2020 court ruling that the EPA has an obligation to address unregulated hazardous air pollutants from certain sources. The amendments include a proposal that would reduce toxic metals and particulate pollution; a proposal to set new emission limits for five currently unregulated hazardous air pollutants at sinter plants; and a proposal to implement fenceline measurements for chromium, which the EPA looks to use as a stand-in for detecting fugitive emissions of other hazardous air pollutant metals.

Several Sierra Club staff members and volunteers testified at the hearing, highlighting the need for the federal agency to do more to strengthen the proposed amendments, including by expanding the scope of the rule to further reduce emissions from these facilities, by ensuring that air monitoring and testing includes all toxic emissions and not just chromium, and by calling for stricter emissions controls at outmoded and unnecessary sinter plants, which are major contributors of lead emissions in particular. The comments also highlighted the role that the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law play in providing ample resources to help heavy industries like steel and iron achieve higher levels of pollution reduction than the proposed rule and remain globally competitive. (A full transcript of the comments is also available.)

“Now is our opportunity to tackle pollutants making communities and workers sick and carbon pollution heating the planet,” said Harry Manin, Deputy Legislative Director for Industrial Policy and Trade at the Sierra Club. “Sierra Club knows the importance of supporting the operation of the cleanest integrated mills. If we get this right, facilities, workers, and communities will be primed to prosper as the government and automakers seek clean steel. This approach is also crucial to ensure that the American steel industry has a foothold to grow by supplying the green energy transition globally.”

“Government, industry, and the public do not have a comprehensive understanding of the impact of emissions from the steel industry because existing guidelines allow for gaps in pollution measurements from facility to facility. This uncertainty paralyzes the local community’s ability to respond to issues that affect their health, and is bad for industry as these manufacturing facilities that are cornerstones of the modern economy lose the capacity to discern what ‘best practices’ look like. This critical update to NESHAP is an opportunity to make up for these current deficits,” said Yong Kwon, Senior Policy Advisor at the Sierra Club.

“The iron and steel industry is one of the major lead polluters in the country, with cumulative impacts passed down from mother to unborn child. This rule must crack down on lead emissions,” said Jane Williams, a volunteer with Sierra Club’s Clean Air team and the executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. “Domestic steel production capacity is going to expand, but the iron and steel industry should not be allowed to emit as much pollution as it wants. We especially need to control lead emissions from sinter plants, including those in Northwest Indiana that are some of the most polluting, stationary sources of lead in the country.”

The comment period on the proposed rule closes on September 14, 2023. The Sierra Club plans to submit additional written comments by that date.

More information on the proposed amendments can be found in the Federal Register and in this EPA fact sheet.