The Tonawanda Coke plant has shown a significant drop in benzene emissions and made major

strides to comply with environmental violations.

The progress was cited by federal and state enforcement agencies to about 75 people

Wednesday at an event sposored by the Clean Air Coalition of WNY in the Sheridan Parkside

Community Center in the Town of Tonawanda.

The coke foundry was cited in the past nine months by state and federal regulators for a

wide array of air, water and toxic waste violations, something noted at the outset by Ken Eng,

who heads the Environmental Protection Agency's air compliance branch in New York City.

"I have been at the EPA for 40 years, and I've never seen resources marshalled in terms of

going after Tonawanda Coke. I'm talking about resources from our national investigation center

in Denver, from our EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C.; our labs in Edison, N.J.; and our

own departments in New York City," Eng said.

He listed numerous enforcement actions issued by the federal agency, which so far are being

met by company compliance, with more improvements and two major tests to follow.

"There has been considerable amount of cooperation with the company. There is more to go

— it is still an ongoing investigation — but we think we have made measurable

progress," Eng said.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation's latest air monitoring also was

encouraging.

An air monitor on Grand Island Boulevard that previously found levels of benzene, a

carcinogen, to be 75 times higher than recommended guidelines dropped to 19 times higher in

tests taken between March 2009 and March 2010.

Another test site in the Brookside Terrace neighborhood found levels met the statewide

level of six times the recommended guidelines, according to Larry Sitzman, regional air

pollution engineer for the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

"It's very encouraging for us to see we made changes at the facility and it resulted in

reductions in the community," Sitzman said.

However, Sitzman cautioned more data was needed before definitive conclusions could be

drawn. For one thing, he said, coke production during much of the recent testing period had

dropped to around 50 percent.

"We want to plug in production [data], too, so we can answer the whole question. We're not

convinced that if they go up to 100 percent capacity it's going to double the emissions. The

improvements made there could be a huge percentage of the benzene reductions," Sitzman said.

Sitzman praised the plant for being cooperative after years of dragging its feet.

"When we go out for inspections or for testing, there is a lot of work going on at the

facility, a lot of improvements being made," he said.

Erin Heaney, the Clean Air Coalition's executive director, said she was encouraged by what

she heard, but also concerned about what would happen at the plant once production increased.

She also said that, even with the improvements, the plant is still well in excess of EPA and

DEC's public health standards for benzene.

Clean Air Coalition member Charles Cobb praised the organization for bringing political

pressure to bear to hold Tonawanda Coke accountable.

"It's a cliche, but when people come together and are organized to speak with one voice, as

we've seen with the Clean Air Coalition, you're going to get results," Cobb said.