Lt. Governor Fetterman Visits USS Clairton Works

PITTSBURGH, Pa. (KDKA)--Keeping the air quality at a healthy level and making steel in the Mon Valley….on the minds of Lt Governor John Fetterman and US Steel and its union members when he met with them today.

The Clairton Works Coke plant has had some hard hits....a fire and explosion on Christmas Eve that shut off its pollution controls and a second fire a few weeks ago...again knocking out it's air pollution controls....but Fetterman says the air quality is on point.

"Here's what the county air monitor showed on the day of the fire on 6-17, the highest hourly reading was 25 points per billion, the standard is 75, so that at the highest was lower than a third of what the standard should be, Fetterman said. Monitors don't lie."

But after the December fire, US Steel exceeded its pollution limits more than two dozen times....however last month US Steel reached an agreement with the Allegheny County Health Department with a commitment of 200 million dollars for the improvements to the plant's coke batteries, including upgrading emissions controls.

US Steel was also fined.

"I salute the agreement between the health department and US Steel and I'm incredible grateful that the civil penalties are going to the communities that deserve them".

The purpose of Fetterman's visit was to go over where the steel giant is now and how it is going forward. Fedderman says he never wants there to be a time when a choice has to be made over whether to made steel or maintain clean air.