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EPA Public Hearing on TV Middletown beginning on September 13th at 3:00 p.m.

TV Middletown will be airing the EPA hearing from September 2nd on the following dates at www.tvmiddletown.org:

Sunday, September 13th at 3:00 p.m. and late that evening at 1:30 a.m.

Tuesday, September 15th @ 9:00 p.m. and late that evening at 1:30 a.m.

Wednesday, September 16th at 5:00 p.m.

Once the first one is aired on September 13th, it will automatically load on the website so it can be seen over the web at http://tvmiddletown.blip.tv/.

It will be listed as the OEPA public hearing from September 2nd. This is only the “public hearing” portion of that meeting, as the question and answer time, which was quite lengthy, was not recorded.

Monroe not backing down from coke plant fight

Monroe City Council to appeal dismissal of lawsuit in federal court.

The City of Monroe is not backing down in its fight to block a proposed $340 million coke plant in Middletown near the Monroe border. Monroe City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday, Sept. 8, to appeal the dismissal of the city's Clean Air Act citizen lawsuit in federal court against Middletown Coke Company and its parent entity, SunCoke Energy.

Haverhill North Coke Facility is considered "HPV" - High Priority Violator by the USEPA

"The applicant (SunCoke) must certify that all existing major stationary sources owned or operated by the applicant (or any entity controlling, controlled by, or under common control with the applicant) in Ohio as the proposed major stationary source or major modification are in compliance with all applicable emission limitations and standards under the Clean Air Act (or are in compliance with an expeditious schedule which is federally enforceable or contained in a court decree."

Attached is a summary of six (6) Notices of Violation and one (1) warning letter issued by Portsmouth Air Agency to Haverhill North Coke Facility and two (2) USEPA NOV's issued. To date, the 7/17/09 two NOV's and the two USEPA NOV's are unresolved.

On Friday, August 28, 2009, Sunoco issued a statement certifying that their facilities were in compliance in an attempt to satisfy this Clean Air Act requirement for the Middletown Coke NSR permit. I've attached the letter for your review.

You can also visit the following EPA database to locate compliance information:

http://www.epa-echo.gov/echo/compliance_report_air.html

Summarized below is additional violation information for SunCoke, Sunoco and AK Steel:

Haverhill North Coke Facility

U.S. EPA’s Enforcement & Compliance History Online (“ECHO”) database reports that the Haverhill North facility has been a High Priority Violator (“HPV”) of Clean Air Act requirements since July 2008. HPV is the “most serious level of violation noted in EPA databases,”[1] and those violations are identified as unaddressed on the database. The ECHO report notes violations of PSD requirements at the facility for the last four quarters, and of the sulfur dioxide requirements for the current quarter.

Sunoco, Inc. Haverhill Facility (Sunoco is the parent company of SunCoke)

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Officials say SunCoke certification in doubt

State officials said they are unsure whether a certification submitted by SunCoke Energy that its Ohio facilities are in environmental compliance will meet requirements for a new permit it is seeking for a Middletown plant.

SunCoke safety record, health concerns raised at NSR public hearing

Air quality, jobs remain hot topics at hearing

More than 200 people on both sides of the debate about the proposed SunCoke Energy plant, to be built in Middletown, attended a public hearing Wednesday, Sept. 2, to ask questions and give testimony on the draft air permit for the project.

AK signs coke deal with Haverhill North

AK Steel Corp. has agreed to purchase metallurgical coke from SunCoke Energy's Haverhill facility for at least 12 years. Under the agreement, SunCoke's Haverhill North Coke Company plant in Franklin Furnace, Ohio, will provide AK Steel with up to 550,000 tons of coke annually - a key steelmaking raw material.

Distance from site dictates opinions of many

When it comes to the $340 million SunCoke Energy coke plant planned in Middletown - and the $358,245.96 the city of Monroe has spent in legal actions fighting it - residents are on both sides of the fence.

STATEMENT OF THE CITY OF MONROE CONCERNING THE PROPOSED SUNCOKE ENERGY COKE PLANT

The City of Monroe has released a statement regarding their ongoing legal involvement with the proposed Middletown Coke Company facility on the border of Monroe and Middletown, Ohio. Click on the link below to read the statement located on the City of Monroe's website:

http://www.monroeohio.org/info/news_event.cfm?ID=353

It's just wrong!

The following quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summarizes the position SunCoke Watch Inc. has taken consistently over the last 18 months:

“Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
Expediency asks the question - is it political?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?

There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, popular, nor political; but because it is right.”

Environmental Review Appeals Commission (ERAC) issues Notice and Cancellation of Hearing; Federal Lawsuit filed by the City of Monroe is dismissed on policy grounds, not due to the merits of the case

On August 19, 2009, the Environmental Review Appeals Commission (ERAC) issued a Notice and Cancellation of Hearing on the appeals filed on the Middletown Coke Company netting permit-to-install. The Notice states "To comply with amendments to Ohio Revised Code ("R.C.") 3745.05(F) adopted in the biennial budget bill, please be advised that the de novo hearing scheduled in the above-captioned matter is hereby cancelled. Further, any existing deadlines and proceedings currently scheduled in this action are suspended. To conform to the mandate..., this matter will be scheduled for a one hour de novo hearing, to be held after January 1, 2010...A written order affirming, vacating, or modifying the action appealed from will be issued by the Commission no later than July 15, 2010."

Layman translation: This hearing was scheduled in February 2010 for one full week of testimony for the appeals filed. It is impossible for the citizens who oppose permits issued by the Ohio EPA to have due process with only one hour allotted for such a hearing. Numerous other ERAC appeals pending in the state of Ohio are also effected by this bill, not just those appeals involving the Middletown Coke permit.

On August 20, 2009, Judge Dlott dismissed the federal lawsuit filed by the City of Monroe against Middletown Coke Company.

The Order states:

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