Environmental Compliance Index
Bethlehem Steel measures its environmental performance with an environmental compliance index (ECI), which is defined as the number of exceedances/incidents reported to or cited by government agencies during a reporting month. The index components are air exceedances, water discharge exceedances, spills and notices of violation. The sum of these four components creates the ECI.
Our goal for 1996 was to have a monthly average ECI of 30 or less, which would have given us a 20-percent improvement over 1995. Much to our dissatisfaction, our monthly average ECI was 61 (103 percent above goal). This was due to unexpected problems at one of our coke plants in complying with new and more stringent hazardous air pollutant regulations that became effective in January 1996. These problems have been resolved with the regulatory agencies in a compliance agreement, and the coke plant has returned to compliance with these regulatory requirements. Excluding this one problem area, the average monthly corporate ECI was 28 — approximately seven percent better than the annual goal.
Fines and Penalties
Over the past four years, Bethlehem has made a concerted effort to resolve various historic environmental problems at our business divisions, taking a proactive approach to putting these problems behind us. As a result, environmental fines and penalties in 1996 were $161,000, the lowest level since 1984. The majority of these fines and penalties were at PST to resolve air emission problems at the electric arc and ladle refining furnaces.
In 1997, we expect to pay fines and penalties in conjunction with the resolution of the following issues: the signing of a multi-media agreement to resolve several historic problems at Sparrows Point, an agreement at the Coke Oven Division at Bethlehem to resolve air emission exceedances relative to the National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants for coke ovens, and an agreement to resolve inadvertent groundwater seepage from the ore dock wall at Burns Harbor.
Safety, Health and Environment Department
1170 Eighth Avenue, Martin Tower, 12th Floor, Bethlehem, PA 18016-7699.
For further information, send mail to [email protected]
1996 Environmental Report Table of Contents
