EPA v. AK STEEL, MANSFIELD WORKS

Case summary

AK Steel Corporation (�AK Steel�) owns and operates a steel-making mini mill located at 913 Bowman Street, Mansfield, Ohio (the �Facility�). AK Steel is located in an environmental justice area of concern. AK Steel operates, among other things, two electric arc furnaces (EAFs) identified as EAF #8 and EAF #9 at its Facility. On March 26, 2013, EPA issued a Notice and Finding of Violations (�NOV/FOV�) to AK Steel for failure to meet its Clean Air Act requirements by: (a) exceeding the visible particulate emissions limit of NSPS AAa at its melt shop operations baghouse stack while the EAFs were operating; (b) exceeding the visible fugitive particulate emissions limit of NSPS AAa at the melt shop building enclosure; (c) failing to maintain the baghouse control system fan motor amperes; and (d) exceeding the visible particulate emissions limit at the baghouse serving the thin slab continuous caster. Alleged violation of the visible particulate emissions limit at the baghouse serving the thin slab continuous caster has since been dropped. On May 1, 2013, EPA and AK Steel met to discuss the Notice and Finding of Violation (NOV/FOV) that was issued by EPA on March 26, 2013. During the meeting and through subsequent discussions between AK Steel and EPA, AK Steel explained the root cause for each of the violations and actions taken by the company to address those violations. Below is a discussion of these actions: (1) To address the visible particulate emissions limit exceedance at its melt shop operations baghouse stack while the EAFs were operating, AK Steel isolated the compartments within the baghouse that were identified as having slipped, and repaired the bags within the compartment before returning them on line. As a preventative measure, AK Steel also replaced half of the bags in the #1 compartment of the baghouse and conducted vacuum cleaning around the bottoms of the bags throughout all of the compartments in the baghouse. AK Steel now implements a procedure to conduct daily inspection of the baghouse through visible observations along the top of the baghouse as well as a pre-inspection of the baghouse compartments prior to a start-up after long-term outages. (2) To address the visible fugitive particulate emissions limit exceedances at the melt shop building enclosure, AK Steel determined that the emissions originated from an area where a ventilation pipe exists the upper side wall of the shop building. Specifically, the seal between the ventilation pipe and the wall had deteriorated. AK Steel hired a contractor who completed the repair by constructing a new seal with rope packing and silicone caulking. (3) To address the failure to maintain the baghouse control system fan motor amperes, AK Steel determined that the main cause of fan motor amperes deviations was moisture in the air compressor line that caused freezing in cold weather. AK Steel improved the performance of the control equipment with the installation of a dedicated air compressor along with a dryer to remove moisture. EPA is satisfied that the actions taken by AK Steel have addressed the violations. In addition, AK Steel agreed to submit an application to Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, within 90 calendar days after issuance of the CAFO, to modify its Title V permit. AK Steel and EPA agreed to settle the matter by payment of a cash civil penalty in the amount of $50,000.

Defendants (1)

• AK STEEL, MANSFIELD WORKSNamed in complaintNamed in settlement

Facilities (1)

• CLEVELAND-CLIFFS, INC. - MANSFIELD OPERATIONS

  913 BOWMAN STREET, MANSFIELD, OH, 449010247

  Registry ID: 110000391898

Statutes cited

• CAA 111 — New Source Performance Standards
• CAA 502 — Operating Permits (Title V)

Enforcement conclusions (1)

• AK STEEL, MANSFIELD WORKSentered 2014-09-30

  Primary law: CAA

  Federal penalty: $50,000

Timeline (4 milestones)

• 2014-09-30Enforcement Action Data Entered
• 2014-09-30Complaint Filed/Proposed Order
• 2014-09-30Final Order Issued
• 2016-10-27Air Resolved