Response to US Steel from Political Economy Research Institute
25 May 2006
United States Steel responded to its ranking on the “Toxic 100” list prepared by the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts, with a statement on 19 May 2006, available here:
The “Toxic 100” list and related materials are available at:
Below is PERI’s rejoinder to US Steel’s 19 May statement.
“We thank US Steel Corporation for its willingness to engage in dialogue with the Political Economy Research Institute, and the Business and Human Rights Resource Center for moderating this dialogue.
In May 2003, US Steel Corporation acquired National Steel, the assets of which included the three facilities listed above: Granite City Works in Granite City, Illinois; the Great Lakes Works in Ecorse, Michigan; and the Midwest Plant in Portage, Indiana. These three facilities contributed approximately 35 percent of the Toxic Score that placed US Steel Corporation at number two on the Toxic 100 list of top corporate air polluters. PERI's practice is to assign ownership of polluting facilities on the basis of the most recent available data because this information is of greatest utility to shareholders and other stakeholders regarding the party currently responsible for the plants that released the toxic substances. We believe that when a corporation takes control of particular polluting facilities, they also take responsibility for the past pollution created by those facilities.
We use toxic release data for 2002 because these are the most recent data available from the EPA's Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) project. Starting with Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data, the RSEI model adds information on the toxicity of each chemical, its spread through the environment, and the population affected. We would welcome more frequent and up-to-date publication of RSEI data from EPA.
Company concerns about the timeliness of the data also underscore the importance of maintaining the quality and frequency of the Toxics Release Inventory data. The EPA is considering rule changes that would reduce the frequency of TRI reporting from annual to biannual and would increase the threshold quantities of chemical releases required to trigger reporting. These rule changes would force environmental analysts to rely on less precise estimates and older data to describe corporate environmental performance, which will reduce the quality of information available to private and public decisionmakers. PERI encourages citizens and companies who want to see decisions made on the basis of the best possible information to contact EPA to support maintaining and improving the timeliness and quality of information available to the public. Visit ombwatch.org, especially for more details on whom to contact.
TRI data are now available up to the year 2004. The Midwest Plant contributed less than 0.1 percent of US Steel's air-release Toxic Score in 2002. The Granite City Works and the Great Lakes Works together contributed just under 35 percent of US Steel Corporation's Toxic Score. The most recent (2004) TRI data for the latter two facilities are available from EPA and from RTKnet.org:
Great Lakes Works in Ecorse, Michigan
In 2002, the highest toxic score releases from the Great Lakes Works were manganese compounds (10,700 pounds) and polycyclic aromatic compounds (10,480 pounds). In 2004, the quantities of these two substances air-released from the Great Lakes Works were 3,013 pounds of manganese compounds and no release of polycyclic aromatic compounds.
Granite City Works in Granite City, Illinois
In 2002, the highest toxic-score air releases from the Granite City Works were manganese compounds (8,000 pounds), polycyclic aromatic compounds (5,510 pounds), and chromium compounds (800 pounds). In 2004, the quantities of these three substances air-released from Granite City Works were 9,100 pounds of manganese compounds, 207 pounds of polycyclic aromatic compounds, and 168 pounds of chromium compounds.
PERI hopes that improved environmental performance since US Steel Corporation's acquisition of these plants will reduce US Steel's Toxic Score, and PERI will publish new data as these become available from EPA.”