“We expect if all goes well, the first coke will be produced late in the third quarter 2011. Our priority is to manage a safe and effective work site,” said Thomas Golembeski, spokesman for SunCoke.
AK Steel has signed a 20-year contract with SunCoke to purchase all coke and electricity the local plant produces. Coke is a coal-based fuel that melts iron ore for use by steel mills.
Alan McCoy, spokesman for AK Steel, called the announcement “excellent news” and reiterated the company’s need for the raw material.
“The only thing that has changed is that we are essentially a year behind what we had envisioned and hoped for, so that simply makes construction of the Middletown plant all the more important,” he said.
Construction will take 15 to 18 months, with about 500 contractors completing the work, the company said.
“We said all along that we were committed to the project, and we’re excited and eager to get construction under way, and we look forward to being part of the community,” Golembeski said.
The three appeals against SunCoke’s New Source Review air permit, issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in February, are set to go to a hearing Jan. 17, 2012. Golembeski said he had no comment regarding the status of those appeals.
This is the second permit SunCoke has pursued for the plant. It voluntarily halted construction in March 2009 after its first air permit was the subject of several appeals and a Clean Air Act lawsuit filed by the city of Monroe.
Chris Walker, the attorney representing Monroe in its legal actions against SunCoke, said the decision to move forward with the plant was news to him.
“If SunCoke wants to begin construction they do so at their own risk because we think the permit ... is invalid,” he said.
Workers ready to build SunCoke facility
The local building trades council said it will have no problem finding 500 people to work on the coke plant now that construction is set to resume.
“Pretty much we have the workers lined up, we’ve got that much unemployment, unfortunately. It’s been a long time coming,” said Gary Corbin, executive secretary and treasurer for the Butler County Building and Construction Trades Council.
The union is meeting with SunCoke Energy officials today, April 7, to discuss scheduling and safety issues for the $360 million plant to be built in Middletown off Yankee Road near the Monroe border. The company said it plans to resume construction April 12 after receiving its second valid air permit from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in February. While work at the site was voluntarily halted in March 2009, Corbin said he feels opposition parties will have a more difficult time fighting SunCoke’s second, more stringent permit.
As for building at the site, Corbin said about 40 people should resume groundwork and the foundation for the plant, with employment peaking in the hundreds by mid-summer. SunCoke said it will take about 500 people and 15 to 18 months to complete the plant.
Robert Snook of Lemon Twp., who has filed appeals against the plant’s permits, said he supports the jobs and investment the facility would bring, but “I don’t think much of their pollution controls, that’s for sure.”
Lisa Frye, president of opposition group SunCoke Watch Inc. said opponents are considering their legal options and “will cross that bridge when they get to (construction).”
Middletown City Manager Judy Gilleland said seeing construction activity begin is “great news.”
“The city of Middletown staff and City Council worked hard on this project and we have anxiously anticipated the commencement of construction,” Gilleland said. “The construction jobs and permanent jobs will be a boost for our regional economy.”
Furthermore, she said, the facility should help ensure the long-term viability of AK Steel’s Middletown Works.
The hiring for the 75 permanent positions outlined for the plant, however, won’t happen for some time. Thomas Golembeski, spokesman for SunCoke, said the company typically conducts a job fair to find employees for its facilities. The company will announce when it is ready to commence hiring as it gets deeper into the construction project, he said.
In addition, the company said it is in the process of contacting stakeholders around the plant site to form a community advisory panel. Sunoco, parent company of SunCoke, typically forms these groups made up of community leaders, residents and a company employee to serve as a “two-way form of communication” on what is happening at the plant and to discuss community concerns, Golembeski said.
Interviews and recommendations for the panel will continue throughout April and May and Golembeski said the company hopes to conduct its first meeting in early June. How many people will be on the committee and where it will meet is still being determined, he said.
While the city of Monroe and some of its residents have been fighting the plant since the project was first announced two years ago, Golembeski said as a neighboring community to the plant “I don’t see why we would not include some of those folks.”
“The (committee) helps address the needs of the community and helps let people know that we want to be a good neighbor and we are going to work really hard to do that,” Golembeski said.
Staff writer Ryan Gauthier contributed to this report
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