For several years, AK Steel Corporation’s Dearborn, MI, facility had been one of Michigan’s most persistent polluters. Despite being subject to an old U.S. EPA enforcement order, the sprawling steel mill remained out of compliance with its permit limits for lead, manganese, and particulate matter, spewing the pollutants into a nearby elementary school. Teachers reported […]
36,000 people, five schools, and over 20 churches are located within a three-mile radius of Valero Energy Corporation’s Port Arthur, TX, oil refinery, according to 2019 data. Surrounded by Valero and several other refineries and chemical plants, residents live in fear of chronic exposure to harmful pollutants such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and fine […]
On Christmas Eve 2018, residents of Clairton, PA, woke up to a sooty haze and a strong sulfurous stench in the air. Earlier that morning, U.S. Steel Corporation’s sprawling Clairton Coke Works experienced a catastrophic fire in the building that houses equipment tasked with removing sulfur and other dangerous pollutants from coke oven gas, a […]
Detroit Renewable Power’s downtown incinerator, one of the nation’s largest trash incinerators, had emitted harmful air pollutants into surrounding neighborhoods for decades. Local community groups had been fighting for years to address the noise, odors, and health impacts of this facility when NELC served a Notice of Intent to Sue on behalf of Environment Michigan and […]
PRSI’s Pasadena, TX, oil refinery experienced a series of fires, explosions, mechanical breakdowns, unauthorized pollution emissions, and workplace injuries before NELC brought suit on behalf of Environment Texas and Sierra Club. The lawsuit, filed in 2017, alleged that PRSI routinely violated emission limits for harmful pollutants — including particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic […]
Air quality in the Monongahela Valley took a severe hit when ArcelorMittal’s decades-old Monessen Coke Plant, a coal processing facility, restarted operations in 2014. While ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, was taking in over $80 billion in annual revenue, the Monessen plant was raining black soot, acidic gasses, and foul odors on surrounding towns. In […]
Following NELC’s successful lawsuits against Shell Oil Co. and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. for illegal air emissions due to “upset” incidents, we continued our efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for poor air quality on Texas’s Gulf Coast by targeting the nation’s largest refining complex, ExxonMobil’s Baytown facility near Houston. Due to equipment […]
In 2009, air quality in Harris County, TX, was among the worst in the nation – particularly for ground-level ozone, commonly known as smog, which can cause a host of serious respiratory problems. A major contributor was the ongoing release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as ethylene, propylene, and 1,3-butadiene, from industrial facilities in the […]
From 2003 to 2008, Shell Oil Company’s Deer Park, TX, oil refinery and chemical plant complex emitted over five million pounds of unauthorized air pollution into neighborhoods that already suffered from some of the worst air quality in the country. On behalf of Environment Texas and Sierra Club, NELC sued Shell and two of its […]
For years, Bradford Dyeing Association, Inc. (BDA), a textile mill and U.S. Department of Defense contractor, had befouled Westerly, RI, with a double whammy of Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act violations. Neighbors complained about foul chemical odors emitted by the facility, and kayakers observed a “dead zone” in the Pawcatuck River directly downstream […]