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More Assaults Proposed on Lake Erie
A coke plant has been proposed to be built along Lake Erie's Maumee Bay. Concerned with the environmental and economic health of the Western Lake Erie Basin, citizens have been fighting the construction of this facility since 2004.
Coking facilities, or "coke plants," process coal by destructive distillation. This process drives off propane, benzene, sulphur gases, and much of the water in the coal. This "coked" coal is then used for making steel, or for power generation.
The proposed coking operation is not a small facility in terms of air pollution. If built, the plant will release per year 2.1 billion pounds of unregulated Carbon Dioxide (CO2), the most prominent greenhouse gas. This is in addition to its Ohio EPA-permitted seven million pounds of pollution, which includes an estimated fifty-one pounds of emitted mercury. Additionally, the coke plant will exceed the allowable limits under the Clean Air Act's Prevention of Significant Deterioration for fine particulates. The trade-off is it would create an estimated 150 jobs, a small number compared to the environmental havoc it would wreak. And though there have been several public meeting held by the Environmental Protection Agency, there has been no mention on the impacts on the health of nearby residents and workers, nor is there any mention on the impacts on the students at Wynn School in Oregon.
Adding insult to injury, the site's surrounding areas, Harbor View and North Oregon, are designated as an Environmental Justice Area. The hundreds of homes located there are in the shadow of the First Energy Bayshore Power Plant on the east, the BP Refinery on the south, and now the proposed FDS Coke Plant less than a mile on the west.
Please contact your Ohio elected officials and ask them: Who will be responsible if there is a Problem Emissions Event? To contact elected officials in OH, please head to the Western Lake Erie Waterkeepers Association Elected Officials page.
For more information, contact Sandy Bihn, Executive Director of the Western Lake Erie Waterkeepers Association at sandylakeerie@aol.com
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