Managing Environmental Performance

Environmental Management System

Bethlehem has recognized that excellence in environmental performance must be supported by an effective Environmental Management System (EMS).

EMS is a process for developing, implementing and documenting the identification and management of significant environmental aspects in each business unit, which include activities, products or services that can interact positively or negatively with the environment.

Bethlehem's EMS is guided by a manual that is used by each business unit to develop, implement and maintain consistency with Bethlehem's stated corporate environmental policy and policy objectives. The manual also helps the business units in developing plans and realistic schedules to address current and future issues. The following chart shows the EMS process.

Bethlehem Lukens Plate's mills located at Burns Harbor, Ind. (BLP-West), were the first to implement this process. In March 1999, BLP-West formed an EMS implementation team that will perform future annual management reviews and discuss the findings with mill and division leadership. Key objectives identified in the updated Environmental Plan will subsequently be transferred to the Business Plan.

Bethlehem's Engineers Build Environment into Capital Expenditure Planning Process

Sparrows Point

The new cold mill project at Sparrows Point, scheduled to begin operations in early 2000, has involved numerous environmental components. One challenge of this project was creating control technology for the hydrochloric acid pickling process to satisfy regulations that had not been finalized. Through close cooperation, Bethlehem and the EPA were able to plan appropriate controls.

A second challenge in meeting government standards is posed by the expected year 2000 renewal of the Plant's waste water discharge permit. Studies showed that the cold mill's waste water stream could be filtered and returned to the mill for reuse. For the hot strip mill that supplies the cold mill, research showed that any one of four wastewater treatment technologies could treat waste water and recycle it back to the mill. One method, electromagnetic filtration, brought Bethlehem a patent for the process.

Burns Harbor

At Burns Harbor, the hot strip mill uses a large volume of lake water in a once-through process to achieve the right temperature for developing optimal mechanical properties in its product. At the same time, the mill is a major source of hot process water which must be treated at the plant's central wastewater treatment facility before being discharged to Lake Michigan.

Faced with the need for adequate cooling water and a reduced thermal load, engineers are designing a cooling tower to reduce the flow of hot process water to the wastewater treatment plant. This new process, when installed, will enable mill production of a higher yield of quality product while improving the treatment plant's ability to remove contaminants and reducing the temperature of water flowing into the lake.

Beth Energy Mines

Bethlehem's former Mine 33 in Western Pennsylvania generates about 6,000 gallons per minute of alkaline mine drainage. Bethlehem engineers have conceived a plan to inject this alkaline water into two abandoned mines owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The alkaline waters of Mine 33 will neutralize the acid mine water in the abandoned mines and improve water quality in the Conemaugh River. Discussions with the State Department of Environmental Protection to advance this innovative project are underway.

Also, over the next several years, Beth Energy will test a pilot-scale wetlands that uses bull rushes and cattails in an unused surge pond to find out whether these wetlands can remove metal contaminants, primarily iron, manganese, and aluminum, from acid mine drainage. Use of these wetlands, called passive treatment, has the potential to drastically reduce the amount of caustic chemicals used in water treatment plants.

A potential fugitive dust problems from these large
scrap trucks was prevented by paving roads.

Bethlehem Lukens Plate - Conshohocken

Bethlehem Lukens Plate - Conshohocken, designed, procured and installed ultra-low NOx (oxides of nitrogen) burners on a reheat furnace to reduce NOx emissions by 72 percent. These burners were installed for future NOx reductions and were not required by a regulatory program.

Conshohocken engineers also designed and installed a system to remove residual flakes of steel from plate that reduces employee exposure to airborne particulate, improves the working environment and housekeeping, produces cleaner plate and eliminates customer complaints about scale.

Pennsylvania Steel Technologies

When PST decided to use 24-wheel trucks with payloads of 150 tons to haul scrap from the scrap management facility to the steelmaking department, it paved the road in order to prevent a dust problem before it occurred. PST keeps the road clean with a sweeper to keep any tracked-in dust from creating an in-plant safety hazard and from drifting into the surrounding community.

1998/99 Environmental Report Table of Contents