A fence separates AK Steel’s facility in the Southend of Dearborn from Salina Elementary and Salina Intermediate School in the Southend.

DEARBORN — On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced AK Steel will pay a $1.35 million civil penalty to settle past air pollution violations. 

Under the settlement agreement with the United States and the state of Michigan, the steel company will pay the penalty for past violations of the Clean Air Act at its Dearborn facility, implement a variety of procedures to reduce future violations and install air filtration systems at the Salina Elementary and Salina Intermediate Schools. 

“No, I am not happy with this settlement agreement,” said Mohamed Ahmed, a resident of Dearborn’s southend. “I don’t want them to pay for past air pollution violations. I want them to install updated equipment that will prevent air pollution violations from reoccurring.”

In March, The Arab American News was first to report about AK Steel’s plans to spend more than $300,000 on an air filtration system at both schools. 

Ahmed, a member of the South Dearborn Environmental Improvement Association (SDEIA), said the recent settlement agreement will not change the fact that parts of Salina Intermediate School still lack air conditioning. Last summer parents complained about windows being left open during school hours in large part because of the odors from nearby industrial sources. 

Dearborn resident Adel Mozip called the settlement agreement a step in the right direction and said he hopes it prevents air pollution violations from occurring in the future. 

Mozip was one of a few residents who complained to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) in December about air pollution from AK Steel’s facility. Mozip lives in the east end of Dearborn, but said he could smell the “unbearable” odor from the alleged air pollution violation all the way from his house.

A study conducted by Wayne State University researchers in 2014 concluded the pulmonary health of Arab Americans living in the southend of Dearborn is adversely affected by environmental factors. 

The settlement will resolve 42 violation notices issued by the MDEQ and two notices of violation issued by the EPA alleging violations resulting from a wide variety of air emission sources issued against Severstal, the previous owner of the Dearborn facility.  

Ahmed has lived in the southend for decades and is still worried air pollution violations may continue to occur despite the recent settlement. 

Severstal paid about $1 million in fines to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and spent millions of dollars on new control equipment to settle previous violations in 2006. Despite this, air pollution from the facility still continued. 

“People living in Dearborn and southwest Detroit have long been concerned about air pollution from this steel mill,” said Susan Hedman, administrator for the EPA’s Chicago-based Region 5 office, which oversees the six-state Great Lakes region. “The consent decree will result in improved air quality in these communities and help prevent future violations of the Clean Air Act.”

Terms of the settlement agreement were announced after the MDEQ issued a controversial 2006 revised emissions permit to Severstal in May of 2014 that transferred over to AK Steel. 

Severstal was subsequently sued over the permit by environmental groups who claimed the permit could allow toxic pollutants such as lead, carbon monoxide and PM10 (fine dust) to be increased significantly. 

Christopher Bzdok, an environmental attorney who represented southend residents in the suit, said that permit had to be passed in order for Severstal to sell and that it allows AK Steel to operate at maximum production. 

“So the answer to the question of ‘are they really raising limits?’ is if they continue to operate at the levels they did when they did the stack test, then no. But if they increase their production or if they have increased their production, then yes, they have increased their actual emissions by a lot,” Bzdok told The Arab American News in an interview last year. 

In a statement regarding the settlement, the Department of Justice said AK Steel has taken responsibility for past violations and has been improving its compliance with environmental regulations.

“In agreeing to this judicially enforceable settlement, AK Steel is committed to prevent the violations of its predecessor from recurring, inform the public about its future environmental compliance and provide cleaner air for local school children,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  

According to the DOJ, the consent decree will require AK Steel to develop an environmental management system for the facility with third-party auditing every six months, annually inspect and continuously monitor the performance of the pollution control equipment at the facility’s basic oxygen furnace and implement a fugitive dust control policy to prevent large particulate emissions into the adjacent neighborhoods. Upon full implementation of the consent decree requirements, particulate matter emissions, including metal hazardous air pollutants, from AK Steel should be reduced by approximately 100 tons per year.

Barry Racey, a spokesman for AK Steel, previously told The Arab American News significant progress has been made at the Dearborn Works with environmental compliance since AK Steel acquired the facility last September. He said the plant’s fourth quarter of 2014 environmental performance was likely the best in the history of facility. He also noted that AK Steel is working to ensure that the Dearborn facility’s operations comply with all applicable environmental laws, regulations and permits.”

On Thursday, the SDEIA hosted a community meeting at Salina Elementary School to discuss the governments’ proposed Consent Decree and the pending lawsuit about the permit that was issued to AK Steel last May.

There will be a 30-day public comment period that will allow anyone to provide the court with any comment about the proposed Consent Decree. The public comment period will start as soon as the Federal Register publishes notice of the proposed Consent Decree. The Department of Justice has asked the court to do nothing until the 30-day public comment period is over, which will be sometime in mid- to late June unless extended.