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MIDDLETOWN — The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has issued a draft New Source Review permit for the SunCoke Energy plant to be built locally.
The draft permit puts the company one step closer to constructing the new plant, which will take 18 to 24 months to build and has experienced a myriad of delays.
The permit was issued late Monday, July 27, said Heather Lauer, spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA.
This is the second permit issued for the $340 million Middletown coke plant, which will supply nearby AK Steel Corp. with coke and electricity for at least the next 20 years.
There have been questions about SunCoke’s current permit, issued in November, due to the Ohio EPA’s interpretation of air emission credits from the closing of AK Steel’s sinter plant in June 2003. The permit defines a window of five years for use of the credits. The NSR permit does not have that time constraint, Lauer said.
“As we’ve said all along, we are pursuing the New Source Review permit to eliminate any doubt about the project’s environmental permitting. We are committed to operating all of our facilities in a safe, reliable and environmentally sound manner,” said Thomas Golembeski, spokesman for SunCoke.
The plant has larger implications than just the viability of Middletown, or even Butler County, said Bill Triick, president of the Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Trenton and Monroe.
“This is not just a $340 million construction project, which is one of the top investments in Ohio right now. It’s not just 75 to 80 permanent jobs, it’s steelmaking in Ohio. That’s a big footprint in Ohio to be casual about,” he said.
New permit more stringent
SunCoke Energy may be a step closer to construction after nine months of delays now that it has received a new draft permit from the Ohio EPA.
The state agency issued a draft permit for a New Source Review air emissions permit for the $340 million coke plant in Middletown. The coke, a vital raw material used in blast furnaces to help make iron ore into steel, will be sold exclusively to AK Steel for its local steelmaking operations for at least 20 years.
The NSR permit is more stringent than the one SunCoke received from the Ohio EPA in November 2008, but does not include a time limit for how long emission credits can be used, an issue that has resulted in numerous delays and is the subject of a Clean Air Act lawsuit filed by the city of Monroe.
Part of the permit requires the company to show how it would improve air quality in Butler County, which does not meet federal standards, said Heather Lauer, spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA.
The company has secured credits from AK Steel from the closing of its sinter plant in June 2003. AK submitted its Emission Reduction Credit Generation request to the Ohio EPA on July 16, said spokesman Alan McCoy.
The Ohio EPA is still awaiting a submission from Procter & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, which SunCoke also has named as a source of credits. Thomas Golembeski, spokesman for SunCoke, declined to comment specifically on the agreement with P&G.
The plant, while delayed, remains important to AK Steel, McCoy said.
“This project is every bit as important to the future of Middletown Works today as when it was first announced a year and a half ago,” he said. “Unfortunately, the delays have been costly not just to the project but to the hundreds of trade and craft workers who could be on the job now in the midst of the deepest recession in decades. But hopefully, that day is coming soon.”
It is still unclear how SunCoke’s current air permit will be affected by the possible issuance of the NSR. Both permits cannot stand at the same time as there can only be one permit per plant per site, the Ohio EPA has said.
“It will be one or the other and at the end if this (NSR) permit goes final then I don’t know if the company will have to choose or the Ohio EPA will say this one supersedes (the old) one,” Lauer said.
A public hearing has been set by Ohio EPA to discuss the draft permit at 6:30 p.m. Sept. 2 in Johnston Hall, Room 142, at Miami University Middletown, 4200 E. University Blvd. The Ohio EPA will consider comments from residents such as whether appropriate air pollution controls are included on the NSR permit and whether all sources of pollution have been identified and characterized on the draft permit. Speakers’ testimony will be limited to between three and five minutes.
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