Trump’s EPA Delayed Pollution Safeguards Ahead of Deadly US Steel Explosion
Residents of steel communities say fence-line monitoring for dangerous air pollution must be mandatory.
By Mike Ludwig ,
August 22, 2025
U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works, situated along the Monongahela River, is seen following an explosion at the plant in Clairton, Pennsylvania, on August 11, 2025.
REBECCA DROKE / AFP via Getty Images.
A deadly explosion at a U.S. Steel coke plant near Pittsburgh has brought renewed attention to the steel industry’s aging facilities. Steelworkers and community activists say the Trump administration has put their health at risk by delaying and potentially scrapping pollution monitoring rules meant to protect nearby neighborhoods from dangerous toxins released into the air by the nation’s steel and coke plants.
On August 11, a massive explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania, left two workers dead and sent at least 10 others to the hospital. It took rescuers hours to find workers still alive in the wreckage after the blast, which shook homes across a tight-knit steel mill community nestled along the Monongahela River valley. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but officials suspect a faulty valve and a fatal buildup of gas.
“I could physically feel my body shake. That’s how loud it was and that’s how alarming it was,” nearby resident Germaine Patterson told reporters on August 21.
U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works is considered the largest coke-producing operation in North America. Workers at the plant bake coal in massive ovens into coke, a hard, grey, porous, carbon-rich substance that is shipped on the river for use in the blast furnaces of plants that make iron and then steel. The facility has a long history of clean air violations and accidents, including an explosion in February that injured two workers, according to the Associated Press.
Along with postponing the hazardous are toxin rules, President Donald Trump also recently approved the nearly $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by the Japanese company Nippon Steel, raising hopes that new ownership could bring investments in new, cleaner steel-making technology that could reduce pollution in communities such as Clairton while preserving jobs residents have depended on for generations. However, the recent explosion is raising questions about whether Nippon Steel is willing to spend the money necessary to retrofit U.S. Steel’s aging infrastructure.
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A deadly explosion at a U.S. Steel coke plant near Pittsburgh has brought renewed attention to the steel industry’s aging facilities. Steelworkers and community activists say the Trump administration has put their health at risk by delaying and potentially scrapping pollution monitoring rules meant to protect nearby neighborhoods from dangerous toxins released into the air by the nation’s steel and coke plants.
On August 11, a massive explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, Pennsylvania, left two workers dead and sent at least 10 others to the hospital. It took rescuers hours to find workers still alive in the wreckage after the blast, which shook homes across a tight-knit steel mill community nestled along the Monongahela River valley. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, but officials suspect a faulty valve and a fatal buildup of gas.
“I could physically feel my body shake. That’s how loud it was and that’s how alarming it was,” nearby resident Germaine Patterson told reporters on August 21.
U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works is considered the largest coke-producing operation in North America. Workers at the plant bake coal in massive ovens into coke, a hard, grey, porous, carbon-rich substance that is shipped on the river for use in the blast furnaces of plants that make iron and then steel. The facility has a long history of clean air violations and accidents, including an explosion in February that injured two workers, according to the Associated Press.
Along with postponing the hazardous are toxin rules, President Donald Trump also recently approved the nearly $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel by the Japanese company Nippon Steel, raising hopes that new ownership could bring investments in new, cleaner steel-making technology that could reduce pollution in communities such as Clairton while preserving jobs residents have depended on for generations. However, the recent explosion is raising questions about whether Nippon Steel is willing to spend the money necessary to retrofit U.S. Steel’s aging infrastructure.
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Clairton Coke Works and other coke and steel facilities have a long record of violating the Clean Air Act, according to a report released this week by the Environmental Integrity Project. Over the past five years, the plant racked up $10.7 million in fines while state and federal regulators took 14 enforcement actions to hold the facility accountable to clean air laws.
A top pollutant of concern near coke facilities is benzene, a known carcinogen linked to cancer, anemia, and other health issues. At Clairton Coke Works, the highest six-month average concentration of benzene detected by a series of air monitors at the facility’s fence line was nearly 26 micrograms per cubic meter — about eight times higher than is considered safe for public health.
Clairton Coke Works is not alone. One monitor at the ABC Coke plant in Alabama registered six-month average levels of benzene at the facility perimeter from 2022 to 2023 more than four times the recognized limit for protecting human health over the long term, according to the report. In 2023, the 20 steel mills and coke operations investigated in the report released as much carbon dioxide as 10.1 million cars driving for a year, along with nearly 2.4 million pounds of benzene, chromium, and other hazardous pollutants.
Jen Duggan, the executive director at the Environmental Integrity Project, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data on emissions included in the report is self-reported by the industry, and people living near these facilities are likely exposed to much more pollution on a daily basis.
“These emissions are often the results of leaks in valves and other equipment and flaring … that are impossible to detect all of the time and often go underreported,” Duggan said at a press conference on August 21. “There is a significant difference between reported and actual emissions that communities downwind are breathing in.”
In 2024, the EPA under the Biden administration finalized regulations requiring coke facilities to install air monitors at the fence line to test for benzene blowing in the wind, and requiring steel mills to monitor for chromium, a toxic heavy metal linked to an array of health problems. If the levels of the toxins exceeded certain limits set by the EPA, the regulations would require operators to identify and fix the problem.
The regulations were a massive win for environmental justice activists and residents living near steel and coke facilities and were supposed to go into effect this year, but like a long list of other environmental, climate, and public health protections, the Trump administration recently delayed implementation of the rules on behalf of the industry and may scrap them altogether.
Qiyam Ansari, executive director of Valley Clean Air Now in Pennsylvania, said people living in Clairton and the heavily industrialized Mon Valley already live with some of the worst air quality in the nation. The benzene and chromium from the steel industry are major contributors to the “toxic burden our bodies carry,” he said.
“It is absolutely having an effect on people, and that’s why the fence-line monitoring is a bare minimum, so it will at least tell us what is out there and what we are suffering from and how to take precautions,” Ansari told Truthout.
Mandatory fence-line monitoring would also help environmental justice groups hold the industry and regulators accountable when aging facilities such as Clairton Coke Works consistently have problems. However, beyond rolling back environmental protections, the Trump administration is also slashing funding for government agencies that oversee polluting industries, including the EPA and U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
“Our elders deserve to breathe without fear that every day it shortens their lives,” Ansari said. “Fence-line monitoring is not optional. It is the bare minimum for justice.”
On August 6, just days before the Clairton Coke Works explosion, a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging its decision to delay compliance with the 2024 fence-line monitoring requirements. Duggan said similar requirements were successful in reducing toxic emissions from oil refineries. However, in 2023 Truthout reported that some older oil refineries in states with little oversight are still spewing pollution into nearby communities.
“The explosion last week is a warning that the cost of delay is too high, and I stand here to say that the community in Clairton valley is not disposable.” Duggan said.
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