Sierra Club Responds to EPA’s Updated Standards on Air Pollution from Iron, Steel Manufacturing

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, the Biden administration published long-awaited protections against hazardous air pollution emitted from integrated iron and steel manufacturing facilities through updates to the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) rule for integrated iron and steel manufacturing. The Sierra Club applauds the EPA for updating the standards for the first time since 2003, but noted it does not go far enough to protect vulnerable frontline communities that have historically borne the brunt of this dangerous air pollution and its cumulative impacts.

The new standards aim to reduce hazardous air pollutants by nearly 64 tons per year and fine particle pollution by 470 tons per year. That is around 18% of the approximately 350 tons of hazardous air pollutants released through planned and unplanned openings at the steel mills regulated by these new rules, according to an EPA analysis from 2019. A 2023 report commissioned by the Sierra Club found that as many as 2,000 people die prematurely per year as a consequence of particulate matter pollution from the iron and steel industry, with many more people suffering from resulting illnesses.

The new standards will also engage in fenceline monitoring for chromium, which the EPA sees as a surrogate for other hazardous air toxics. Additional standards will also ensure more stringent oversight and reporting of unexpected leaks from these facilities.

According to the EPA, the air pollution emitted by integrated iron and steel manufacturing facilities include metals and trace amounts of organic hazardous air pollution. Exposure to these substances has been demonstrated to cause adverse health effects, including chronic and acute disorders of the blood, heart, kidneys, reproductive system, and central nervous system.

During the comment period, many industry representatives unfairly criticized the rule for imposing an onerous burden on industry. However, the EPA estimated that the annual compliance cost of the rule for steel companies will be $6.7 million, while the economic benefits from the reduction of particulate pollution alone could be as high as $3.7 billion from 2026 to 2035. In other words, the rule is justified from a cost perspective and will also save lives in local communities.

In response to the announcement, the Sierra Club issued the following statement:

“I live with my very young granddaughter about 1,500 feet from Cleveland Cliffs’ blast furnace and about a half-mile from their basic oxygen furnace. My neighbors and I suffer almost daily from fallout, black particles, metal pieces, gray chunks, noxious odors, and very loud noises coming from the steel mill. The EPA needs to do more to monitor pollution in our community and keep us informed about what they are doing to protect our health. This pollution is harming our health and shortening our lives, and more enforcement is necessary," said Donna Ballinger, a Sierra Club member and resident of Middletown, Ohio.

“These amendments have been too long in the making. We remain worried, however, by the uncertainties that local communities face as toxic metals from fugitive emissions continue to affect peoples’ health and wellbeing. Monitoring for chromium is a welcome step, but we encourage the EPA to do more, particularly around lead, which we know has an outsized impact on children. This remains a major area of concern for Indiana’s present and future,” said Joab Schultheis, Chair of the Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club.

“The EPA set the bar lower than we hoped with these new rules. More could have been done to limit public health harms from steel mills. Given the lack of ambition and significant delay from the EPA, we must not allow these polluters to backslide. Many currently available technologies can help the iron and steel industries further reduce their pollution impact, and we will continue to hold regulators and industry accountable to do the right thing,” said Yong Kwon, Senior Policy Advisor with Sierra Club’s Industrial Decarbonization campaign.