Ohio Chapter

NEWS RELEASE

(January 4, 2003 Cincinnati) – Thursday, January 2, 2003, the federal court found that two leading environmental groups have an unconditional right to intervene in the federal EPA and State of Ohio's lawsuit against AK Steel. The lawsuit was brought against AK Steel after the company committed numerous violations of the Clear Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a statute that governs waste removal. In September 2001, Sierra Club and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a motion to intervene with Judge Herman J. Weber in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Ohio, Western Division, so as to join one of the most important environmental battles in Ohio's history.

This action follows AK Steel's continued refusal to meet with the Sierra Club and local citizens to discuss the effects of the pollution on people living and working in the immediate and surrounding area of the Middletown, Ohio plant. Sierra Club members, members of Ohio Citizen Action and ECO and local residents traveled to Wilmington Delaware last May to attend the AK Steel shareholder’s annual meeting. These citizens carried 150 pounds of particulate (soot) pollution and dirty water from Dicks Creek to the meeting and asked CEO Richard Wardrop to meet with them. Wardrop refused, saying, “you have no standing with me”. On Thursday, January 02, 2003, Judge Weber ruled that the environmental groups did, in fact, have standing in the court of law.

Since May 2001, the Sierra Club - which has 17,500 members in Ohio - and Ohio Citizen Action and ECO have gone door to door in Middletown to hear the citizens' views on the pollution from AK Steel's operations. Complaints included houses, pools, and outdoor furniture covered daily by black dust, noxious fumes, and the loss of Dicks Creek, a local tributary of the Ohio River, as a recreational spot. Many reported increased allergies, respiratory problems, and headaches. Over 13,000 citizens from southwest Ohio have sent letters and postcards to Richard Wardrop and members of the AK Steel board of directors asking them to stop the pollution, clean up past contamination and meet with the environmental groups and neighbors.

"We want AK Steel to hear how their pollution has adversely affected the citizens of this region. We want AK Steel to stop their threats to eliminate jobs and make the necessary investments to protect the residents of Middletown, their health, the environment and the economy. The citizens of this region have worked for AK Steel and its predecessor company for 100 years. They’ve made AK Steel what it is today and AK Steel needs to make the commitment to the future health, environment and economy of Middletown” said Marilyn Wall, Chair of the Ohio Chapter Sierra Club. "We continue to hear about and experience the daily threats to the community’s health and daily barrage of soot and fumes from the plant. We’ve seen discoloration in AK Steel’s effluent and have tested the water and sediment in Dicks Creek.”

The U.S. Justice Department, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency, filed its complaint against AK Steel on June 29, 2000. Charges include 204 specific violations of air, water, and hazardous waste laws. The State of Ohio became an intervening plaintiff, the status the Sierra Club and NRDC have now gained. Specific allegations include:

• The illegal discharge of PCBs into Dicks Creek
• Numerous chemical spills, at least two of which caused fish kills
• Failing to control emissions of particulate matter
• The illegal release of hazardous waste into the environment, including cyanide, waste water, zinc, lead, benzene, waste acid, among other toxic materials

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