When the testimony faced that Zig Island’s EES Coke battery is one of the worst sulfur dioxide pollution in Michigan, the lawyer for this facility said on Monday: “So what?” The lawyer for the utility and its subsidiaries who are defendants in the EPA’s Clean Air Act case about emission, Michael Hindiling said, “DTE energy ownership facility was allowed to” do so “.
The Hindu and US lawyer representing the EPA on Monday gave their closing arguments at a federal bench trial. US District District Judge Gershon Drain said that each party has to present its own results in the matter by October 9.
The EPA requested that the EES Coke’s battery pay $ 140 million civil fines and began working with full dysfunction technology in three years.
Hindiling said that 5 million fines should be estimated against the EES Coke’s battery, and this facility should continue to be appropriate for environmental reporting as directed by the state.
He said the court should decide whether it is a civil penalty or a financing of environmental reduction, and the facility is ready to install control of pollution, which will reduce the minimum of 33 % of sulfur dioxide emissions.
The EPA is asking drain to order the installation of full dysplassation, which includes the best available control technology with the minimumable acquisition rate. The EES Coke’s battery manufactures coke, which is a raw material in the steel making process. The facility has a one to five-year length contract to sell its products to Cleveland-Cliffs and Arselormate, which was testified last week by an executive from the DTE Ventage.
Drain ruled on August 25 that the EES Coke’s battery violated the Clean Air Act by a significant amendment to its work rather than a minor amendment as a permission of its 2014 permit.
US Attorney Tom Benson said Monday that the EES Coke’s battery discovered that the blast furnace gas was damaging the gas battery, and in 2014 chose to replace the fuel and apply for a new clean air permit.
Zig Island Pollution EPA lawyer: ‘They buried their heads in sand’
Benson said Monday that the US government tries to comply with the EES Coke’s battery and secure the fines.
He said that to follow the law, the EES Cook Battery needs to be obtained within 90 days, obtaining new source review permit permits, paying million 140 million, and working fully in three years.
New Source Overview is a clean -up Act allowing program that requires facilities to install modern pollution control when they make new plants or make major modifications.
“This is not a shutdown order,” said Banson. The defendants can afford to comply with the law and keep battery. “
Hindiling said the government’s proposal is like a shutdown order – “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Hindiling said the government is demanding an order that the EES Coke’s battery cannot tolerate nor is it physically living, and it is on an inaccessible timeline.
He said, “Banson is saying in a quiet part: ‘Clear or close’.
Hindiling said that EES Coke’s battery can either clean by installing pollution controls, which will reduce or shut down at least 33 % of sulfur dioxide emissions. He said that the EPA’s proposed dysplatory technology is “widely expensive” and it will not fit on the island of Zig.
Hindiling said that the EES Coke’s battery can withstand a clause reactor, a type of dysplassation technology, which can prevent future violations on the island.
The Claus’s reactor “is good”, but the government wants “great”, and “the great shutdown,” he said.
Benson said the 33 % reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions is “not a solution at all.” Referring to the new source review permission, the US lawyer said: “You can’t eliminate the eggs.
“Once a major amendment is made, it steps into the law,” said Banson. “The Clean Air Act has talked, and they have to install the best available control technology and the lowest achievement emission rate.”
Hindiling said that the EES Coke’s battery made good efforts to comply with its permits, while Banson said that the state never approved the expulsion in which it was not known that it was happening.
“Closing your eyes is a choice that has brought us here today,” he said.
Benson said the Clean Air Act fines factor in the violation period, which is seven years in this case. Earlier payments, of which he said there was no one. And the seriousness of the violation of the health effects.
“He buried his head in the sand and hoped that the court would not get notice,” said Banson. He has already damaged thousands of people downward. “
“The community did not choose to roll the tip, but nevertheless they lost. Some had a heart attack, some had already died.”
It takes six years to install dysphalization technology, not the government’s request is being made, “Hindilling said.
He said that it would take two years to allow, that the installation of dysfunction technology would take three, and engineering design would take more than a year.
Hindiling said the shutdown waterfall effect will include a loss of 50 450 million in economic output from the EES Coke battery, the gross loss of $ 900 million to Michigan, and the loss of 2,700 jobs across the state.
He said the shutdown would eliminate the coke, which supports the preparation of two and a half million tons of steel in a year.
EPA, DTE on the effects of Public Health of Zig Island
Twenty -six premature deaths, 3.8 non -Fatal heart attack, 8,000 severe respiratory symptoms, 14.5 new asthma cases, and additional Alzheimer’s cases in 2019 due to coke battery pollution from sulfur dioxide and particle substances, in which the trial was tried in the trial.
Harvard Chen School of Public Health Professor Joel Schwartz said the social cost of pollution from the EES Coke battery is $ 1 billion from 2019-2022.
A 40 -year -old air quality expert on September 17 testified that the EES Coke battery emitting the issue of the battery is the largest source I have seen so far. “
According to Lile Chennan, the air quality expert and CEO and chief and chief of Sonoma Technology, the coke reached the coast of Mine, Missouri and North Carolina.
Hindiling said on Monday that there was no evidence that the effects of the public health could be imposed on the emissions of the Coke battery.
Hindiling said, “We understand the concerns of the Sierra Club’s witnesses. Some witnesses called to testify were a resident of 48217, who were highly polluted zip code near Zig Island. Hindiling said that before the Coke’s battery opened, his red -ranges were in the sky.
The biggest loss to the public health is on the Coke battery fence, and it is from fugitive sources like door leakage – when a worker opens the oven door in which the shovel opens in coal – and there is no technology to fix it.
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The story was originally published by the planet Detroit and was divided by partnership with the Associated Press.
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Michigan pollution
