By Carole Larson, Movalley Sierra Club (former Conservation Committee Chair)
Omaha Steel Castings Plant
On January 11, 2012, an Omaha World Herald article announced the steel foundry Omaha Steel Castings (OSC) will be relocating to Wahoo, NE, within 24 months. The Missouri Valley Group of the Sierra Club and neighbors of OSC welcome this news after a long struggle to get OSC to clean up their uncontrolled air pollution emissions.
Omaha Steel Castings was founded in 1906 in the 46th & Farnam Street area, and has continued to operate there without adequate emission controls under a grandfather clause. As of 2000, the plant was releasing over 100 tons of air pollutants a year, some hazardous, with 95 per cent of the emissions being fugitive (escaping through open doors and windows and open-ended buildings), and only 5 per cent being channeled through smoke stacks. Since the factory is located below ground level, much of the pollution blows along the ground to be inhaled by everyone in its path. Over 130,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the plant. Based on Omaha Steel’s 2000 air permit, the foundry was one of only two steel foundries in the United States that is a major source of hazardous air pollutants, based on EPA criteria.
In 2001 the Sierra Club took up the fight to get the factory to clean up its emissions. We carefully researched Omaha Steel Castings, obtaining documents from the City of Omaha Air Quality Control, the Environmental Protection Agency Region VII, the Nebraska Department of Environment Quality, and other research sources both traditional and internet. We wrote two articles for the Missouri Valley Sierran exposing Omaha Steel’s antiquated emission controls and unacceptable pollutant levels. We formed a coalition with concerned neighbors and together mounted an educational campaign and petition drive to request monitoring of Omaha Steel’s emissions, including particulates and selected hazardous air pollutants, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals. We also requested air modeling to determine the distribution and impact of the emissions. We presented the petition, with over 1400 signatures, at a meeting with Mayor Fahey’s office. Subsequently, very limited monitoring was done, with no critically toxic results detected. Ideally, monitoring would have been ongoing but was prohibitively expensive, for one.
After 2004 our active efforts ceased. The plant was operating legally, and although we hoped it would clean up its emissions, that was a task easier said than done. Remodeling would have required newer air pollution standards to kick in and thus would have caused Omaha Steel significant expense for the short term. The other alternative was for the plant to relocate and rebuild.
With Omaha Steel Castings now moving to a rural area and constructing a factory with state-of-the-art pollution controls, the Sierra Club declares a victory in our campaign to clean up OSC’s emissions, Omaha’s air quality, and the environment in general. Through our research, education campaign, and petition drive we raised consciousness and started the ball rolling. The data and facts spoke for themselves; it was no longer supportable that Omaha Steel continue to operate under outmoded conditions in a densely populated area. Urban redevelopment efforts began to focus on the area and are still pending.
Omaha Steel Casting’s move is a win-win situation for everybody, neighbors, including the University of Nebraska Medical Center; the city of Omaha; regulators; and OSC itself. OSC can now join the ranks of factories recognized for their environmentally and socially responsive operations that care enough about people and the environment to make hard choices. OCS is to be commended for doing what is right despite the difficulties involved. The city of Omaha now has the opportunity to revitalize the area and employ the land in a fashion much more suitable for a location adjacent to a residential neighborhood and medical complex. This is truly a welcome and important development for all concerned, and thanks are due to everyone who worked to bring about this momentous change.