By BOB OLIVER
Times-Herald Newspapers
DEARBORN — Severstal North America is awaiting word on whether or not it will be permitted to continue with its current level of pollutants moving forward.
A decision is expected from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality in mid-April on a proposed revision of the permit Severstal currently works under.
MDEQ Air Quality Division Chief Vince Hellwig said MDEQ staff have been collecting information, public comments and testimony from a public hearing held at Henry Ford Community College March 19 and will put together documents and briefings to give him after the public comment window closes at the end of March.
Hellwig has the final say on the permit.
“We have a lot of material to go through because there is a lot of public interest in this, but I anticipate making the decision a couple weeks after the public comment period ends March 31,” Hellwig said. “It’s important that we go through all of the comments and either address or consider them in the decision process.”
Hellwig said the MDEQ had an open public comment period for citizen comments on the permit proposal began Feb. 12. The original window for comments was to close on March 19 but MDEQ extended the period because of public interest.
He said that after going through all of the information the permit can either be approved as drafted, accepted if modifications are made, or revoked outright.
Severstal has been working under a permit from MDEQ since 2006, but officials from both parties recently have stated that oversight and inaccurate level reporting led to the steel mill polluting in larger amounts than it is allowed to.
The new permit would allow Severstal to double its carbon monoxide emissions, allow for PM10, or fine-particle dust, emissions to rise between two and five times and lead emissions to increase hundred of times over what is now permitted.
Severstal officials have said the permit revision will not allow for an increase in pollutants but will more accurately represent what the plant has been emitting over the last eight years.
The plant is at 4001 Miller Road on part of the former Rogue Steel complex, and it employs about 1,400 people.
Severstal finished a $740 million modernization program at the plant in 2011 and currently produces 3.6 million net tons of hot rolled, 2.1 million net tons of cold rolled, 1.1 million net tons of galvanized and galvannealed sheet each year.
(Bob Oliver can be reached at [email protected].)