Bluestone Coke caught polluting again
Bluestone Coke is no stranger to pollution violations. This month, we ordered the owners of the shuttered coke plant to comply with the Clean Water Act or face us in federal court.
Although Bluestone Coke is not operating the plant is still discharging harmful and illegal pollutants into a tributary of Five Mile Creek, which flows into the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River. The company has permission to discharge wastewater, but it has violated its permit more than 390 times and is not maintaining an onsite water treatment facility.
“Closed or not, it’s Bluestone’s responsibility to keep contaminated water from flowing off the property,” says Sarah Stokes, a senior attorney at SELC. “Companies like Bluestone cannot pollute our air and rivers at the expense of Birmingham communities and businesses.”
Bluestone Coke is in the heart of Birmingham’s 35th Avenue Superfund site, where the Environmental Protection Agency has remediated more than 650 residential properties due to dangerous levels of industrial pollution in the soil. For years, residents of predominantly Black neighborhoods near the plant, including Harriman Park, Fairmont, and Collegeville, were exposed to high levels of visible air pollution and noxious odors.
Water sampling by Black Warrior Riverkeeper has also revealed pollutants not allowed by Bluestone Coke’s permit, including Barium, Strontium, and E. coli.
“Five Mile Creek is a beautiful spring-fed stream, but it has unfortunately been a dumping ground for industrial polluters for many decades due to inaction by environmental regulatory agencies,” says Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke. “It should be safe for fish, wildlife, and human recreation, but it is routinely fouled by polluted water from Bluestone Coke.”
The Jefferson County Department of Health also cited Bluestone for violating its air permit by leaking hazardous emissions from coke ovens at the plant. In December 2022, SELC, our partner GASP, Bluestone, and the Jefferson County Department of Health agreed to a consent decree ordering Bluestone to pay a $925,000 penalty to the Department — the largest fine issued in the agency’s 105-year history.
For more than a century, these communities were subjected to unjust, dangerous industrial practices. We must hold polluters like Bluestone accountable.
Michael Hansen, GASP
However, in May, Bluestone failed to pay more than $283,000 of these fines to the health department. The company, which owes an additional $1,000 every day a payment is late, is owned by the family of West Virginia Governor and U.S. Senate Candidate Jim Justice. Recently, the Justice Department filed suit against the Justice coal empire for failing to pay more than $5 million in civil penalties assessed by the federal government.
“Bluestone Coke has consistently prioritized its own interests and greed over the health and well-being of north Birmingham families,” says GASP Executive Director Michael Hansen. “For more than a century, these communities were subjected to unjust, dangerous industrial practices. We must hold polluters like Bluestone accountable.”