Bethlehem Steel Corporation
1995 Environmental Progress Report
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Nine Employee Teams Receive
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Bethlehem Steel presented its first annual Excellence in Environmental Achievement Awards in fall 1995 to nine teams from six business units for projects that helped achieve environmental goals in 1994. Grants from the Bethlehem Steel Foundation were presented on behalf of the teams to eight local environmental organizations. These nine teams include the following:
Sparrows Point Team Reduces Fugitive Emissions
At Sparrows Point, a 13-member team implemented a multipart program to reduce fugitive emissions at its Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF). The program included the following steps:
- developing, installing and operating a newly designed emission control system in which a ring of steam "seals" a hole to prevent emissions from escaping during steelmaking when an oxygen lance is inserted through the hole and into the steelmaking ladle in the Basic Oxygen Furnace.
- starting a Total Quality Environmental Management system (TQEM), which is a pilot program for the corporation.
- upgrading the gas collection and cleaning system, including computer-based electronic instruments.
- testing a new, low-emission method for making medium and high-carbon/low-phosphorous steels.
- implementing several new operating improvements to reduce emissions.
The team donated its $2,000 grant to Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, Inc., Easton, Md.
Railroad Employees Avert Three Spills 
While the word "team" connotes people working together, often employees act alone while contributing to their business unit's environmental effort. This is exactly what three Patapsco & Back Rivers Railroad employees did to contain spills.
One, a general foreman, for example, was nearby when a hydraulic fitting failed and pressurized hydraulic fluid began to leak. Caught in the open without a way to contain the spill, he had a payloader operator place his loader bucket under the leak to catch 150 gallons before the fluid reached the ground.
Another employee faced an even more dramatic situation when a locomotive derailed and its fuel tank was punctured. He rounded up a response team and ended up squeezing under the locomotive to use sticks, rags and anything handed to him to restrict the fuel leak. While he plugged the fuel leak, a fuel transfer unit was able to pump 619 gallons out safely and avoid a major spill.
A third employee responded one wintry day to a call that a broken locomotive fuel tank pipe was spilling fuel between the tracks. He, too, worried about leakage, not his clothes. He too wriggled under the locomotive and plugged the leak with rags and a broom handle. When other employees arrived with a proper plugging device, he volunteered to place it in the ruptured tank.
These three railroad employees received a Bethlehem Steel Excellence in Environmental Achievement Award and $2,000 grant, which they donated to The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, Washington, D.C., to support its goals of educating children in elementary and secondary schools about environmental issues.
Pa. Steel Technologies Team Reduces Solvent Use
To reduce the potential harm to the environment from using solvents to clean machinery, a team of Pennsylvania Steel Technologies employees looked for an environmentally sound and safe way to clean machinery. The solution identified and implemented by the PST team was a 4,000-gallon tank of water and cleaner, which uses a thermostatically controlled steam heat and air bubbling system to clean large machinery parts including line shafts and rollers. The result is a solvent-free environment that reduces the cost and time involved in cleaning parts.
Team members donated their $2,000 grant to the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, Harrisburg, Pa., for support of regional environmental programs.
Bethlehem Structural Products Scale Pit Team Stops Overflow
Water is used in many parts of the steelmaking process to clean and cool hot steel. As steel is shaped at Bethlehem Structural Products, flakes of steel, called scale, are carried off along with lubricating oils in thousands of gallons of cooling water to scale collection pits. While cranes remove the scale for reuse, water and oil are pumped elsewhere for filtration. Unfortunately, during very heavy rain, the scale pits also collect rain water and sometimes overflowed to storm drains that emptied into the Lehigh River.
To prevent environmental damage, the scale pit overflow prevention team designed and installed pumps, on-site alarms, telephone alarms (which alert office staff or plant patrol), maintenance procedures and standard operating procedures for eight scale pits.
The team received a Bethlehem Steel Excellence in Environmental Achievement Award and $2,000 grant, which it donated to the Monocacy Creek Watershed Association, Bethlehem, Pa., for the development of the Monocacy Creek Watershed.
Pa. Steel Technologies Team Manages Waste
In the mid-1980s, PST began to address solid waste management issues. To focus on the important issues, PST put together a study team from PST management and environmental affairs, Corporate Environmental Affairs and Law Departments and a consulting firm. The team met with the Environmental Protection Agency (Region III) to develop work plans and a simple, cost-effective remediation program, which was incorporated into an existing modernization project.
The team received donated its $2,000 grant to the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy, Harrisburg, Pa., to support regional environmental education.
Three Coke Ovens Reduce Emissions
Reducing air emissions is a big job at steel plants because there are so many potential sources. One of the greatest potential emitters is a coke oven operation and those at Bethlehem Structural Products, Burns Harbor and Lackawanna did outstanding jobs in reducing and preventing emissions over the past few years. Coke is produced by baking coal at high temperature in huge ovens to reduce impurities. Coke is a primary ingredient for making iron in blast furnaces. A group of ovens is called a battery.
Bethlehem Structural Products Coke Oven Team Reduces Emissions
A team of employees at Bethlehem Structural Products revitalized two state-of-the art
mobile emission scrubbers, called Chemico cars, to reduce pushing emissions, which occur
when coke is literally pushed or shoved out of an oven. The team's effort has made this
battery one of the cleanest in the country.
The project began when maintenance personnel stripped two old Chemico cars and rebuilt them "from the railroad tracks up." The team of hourly employees and supervisors, together with consultants, suppliers and plant engineering, installed new components, modified existing components and built some from scratch. Proud of its work, team members signed their names to the side of one car.
The team donated its $2,000 grant to the Saucon Association for Viable Environment, Inc. (SAVE), Bethlehem, Pa., for community environmental efforts.
Burns Harbor Coke Oven Team Reduces Emissions
At Burns Harbor, while Battery 2 was being rebuilt, Battery 1 remained in service and its
pushing emission control system hoods and duct work replaced. Emissions from oven doors,
charging lids and offtakes (gas "stacks") produced during coking operations, and
during charging (filling an oven with coal) were reduced.
By the end of 1994, leaks from doors, lids and offtakes were about one-seventh of the allowable limits, and charging emissions were one-half of the allowable limits. Battery stack performance improved so that it complied with emission standards more than 99.8 percent of the time.
The Burns Harbor team donated its $2,000 grant to the Porter County Parks Foundation, Inc., Valparaiso, Ind., for the development of Sunset Hill Farm County Park.
Lackawanna Coke Oven Team Reduces Emissions
Lackawanna Coke's environmental efforts are an excellent example of the integrated nature
of how control affects different aspects of the environment. During 1994, Lackawanna coke
was consistently below allowable coke oven emission limits for leaks from doors, lids,
offtakes and charging. By burning clean coals, it achieved a 32-percent reduction in
sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, which helped
reduce the SO2 ambient air quality in the city of
Lackawanna to about one-third of the federal air quality standard.
Reduction in air emissions was not the only benefit of Lackawanna's effort. By coking cleaner coals, Lackawanna was able to shut down its coke oven gas desulfurization vacuum carbonate system and still maintain air quality standards. This eliminated one million pounds of solid waste and saved approximately 22 million KWH of energy annually. A third benefit was reduction of cooling water discharges.
The Lackawanna team donated its $2,000 grant to the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens Society, Inc., for the Lackawanna South Buffalo portion of Erie County, N.Y.
Sparrows Point Team Scrubs Noise
In the early 1990s, Sparrows Point began to receive complaints from the community about excessive noise from the plant, especially at night.
After a good deal of investigation, a study team found that the noise, which was coming from the top of one of the scrubber stacks on the basic oxygen furnace , was reflected toward the community under certain atmospheric conditions.
Once the source was identified, the team met with members of the community to explain the problem and the proposed solution. The solution, to replace four scrubber-fan blades, was first tested on one scrubber to see if it worked.
The team explained this testing process to community representatives and gave them periodic updates on the replacement progress over several months. Once the replacement proved successful, changes were made on the other three scrubbers. Today all is quiet at the basic oxygen furnace because the noise abatement team eliminated the noise from its scrubbers.
The team received an Excellence in Environmental Achievement Award and donated its $2,000 grant to The Nature Conservancy, Chevy Chase, Md., for continued environmental efforts.
Safety, Health and Environment Department
1170 Eighth Avenue, Martin Tower; 12th Floor, Bethlehem, PA 18016-7699
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