ERIE, Pa. &#8212 Nine.

That&#8217s the number of people who have contracted cancer on Queen Street, a single block

of 15 houses located near the Erie Coke plant.

The tally by longtime residents Steve and Chris Narusewicz includes their 19-year-old

daughter, Sara, diagnosed last year with papillary thyroid cancer; Steve&#8217s father, who

died from prostate cancer; and a brother who succumbed to colon cancer.

&#8220It makes you wonder what [Erie Coke] is doing to the health of people who live

here,&#8221 Chris Narusewicz said from the porch of her asphalt shingle and brick home.

The high incidence of cancer and other health issues near the coke foundry is one of many

similarities between this plant and Tonawanda Coke in the Town of Tonawanda.

Both have the same owner, J.D. Crane. Both have been cited for numerous environmental

violations &#8212 including a $6 million fine leveled in June 2008 against Erie Coke by state

regulators &#8212 and both have seen a grassroots effort spur government action.

In the case of Erie Coke, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection signed a

consent degree with Crane on Thursday, legally binding the company to comply with laws and

regulations.

Crane paid the $6 million fine and agreed to pay an estimated $15 million for a schedule of

improvements at the antiquated facility aimed at halting the release of dangerous toxins into

the atmosphere.

A Crane representative declined to comment for this article.

At Tonawanda Coke, the state Department of Environmental Conservation cited the company

Thursday for several air-quality violations, with potentially steep financial penalties. The

DEC last year found the plant was emitting cancer-causing benzene at levels up to 75 times

higher than recommended guidelines.

The citations were the latest in a series of get-tough actions by state and federal

agencies.

Last month, members of the Clean Air Coalition of WNY and its Pennsylvania counterpart,

Keep Erie&#8217s Environment Protected, met in Erie to share information and strategy.

&#8220It was an affirmation for our group that it&#8217s a long haul, but community

organizing works. Both communities are making progress,&#8221 said Erin Heaney, the Clean Air

Coalition&#8217s executive director.

&#8220[Their presence] added tremendous weight to everything we&#8217ve been doing and

saying here in Erie,&#8221 said the Rev. Jerry Priscaro, a priest at St. Ann Catholic Church

active with KEEP. &#8220We&#8217re dealing with the same owner, and same owners have a similar

pattern of behavior.&#8221

Ominous cloud

People still talk about the noxious black cloud of coke oven gas that darkened Erie on

March 10.

&#8220It looked like a major storm was coming in, just a large, ominous black cloud rolling

in over the city itself, over Hamot hospital, over the whole Bayfront,&#8221 said James

Thompson, City Council president.

The air pollution put an added burden on the Soldiers and Sailors Home, a nursing home for

retired veterans.

&#8220Inside the building you could smell it, your eyes would burn, and it was a

nauseating smell,&#8221 said secretary Carolyn Grace.

Coke oven emissions are classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as &#8220a known

human carcinogen.&#8221 The two coke plants owned by Crane, and just two others, in Alabama,

produce all of the nation&#8217s high-quality foundry coke used to melt metal in industrial

processes and for mold preparation.

The slowed economy, however, has reduced the demand for coke. A recent article in American

Metal Market, a trade magazine, found foundry production declined from roughly 1 million tons

in 2007 to about 600,000 tons in 2009. Crane-owned plants reportedly have been at around 50

percent capacity for more than a year.

Before Thursday&#8217s settlement, many Erie residents feared Crane might close Erie Coke

rather than give in to regulators&#8217 demands, producing pink slips instead of paychecks for

its 120 workers. That would have been yet another economic hit to Pennsylvania&#8217s

fourth-largest city and it&#8217s once-robust manufacturing base.

&#8220If that plant was to close, it would be devastating,&#8221 said Ralph Pontillo,

president of the Manufacturer & Business Association. &#8220It would do irreparable harm to

jobs and to the tax base. We&#8217re talking about a $5 million payroll.&#8221

&#8216Black, stinky soot&#8217

Luncheonette owner Stephen Paliouras knows many of the Erie Coke workers by their first

names.

For the past 40 years, he and his wife, Nina, have operated New York Lunch down the street

from the plant, where working-class Germans, Irish, Poles, Greeks and Iraqis rub elbows.

People&#8217s health, he said, must come first.

&#8220I&#8217m too [powerless] to say move the plant. I think they should. Look at the

smoke every morning. What do you think? A lot of people are sick over that,&#8221 Paliouras

said. &#8220I&#8217m ashamed to take visitors down to the water because of the black, stinky

soot.&#8221

The dark, discolored water is most prominent near the small boat launch at the foot of East

Avenue, known as &#8220The Foot.&#8221 That&#8217s where a discharge pipe from behind Erie

Coke&#8217s fenced property sends torrents of warm water directly into Lake Erie.

What&#8217s being released is believed to be water used to cool off the hot coke after

it&#8217s baked. But no one in town seems to know for sure. And although swimming is not

allowed, no warning signs are posted about potential environmental dangers.

&#8220What is that muck? Can I take my dog over there? Can I take my grandchild over there?

Who does the coke plant think they are?&#8221 said Leonard Rumberger, on a walk with Cody, his

black Labrador retriever.

Kids and teenagers often swim and walk in the water near the discharge, according to Joey

Schweichler, 22, because they&#8217re less likely to get caught.

&#8220You jump in, step out and the bottom of your feet will be black from the soot and

stuff that the pipes put out,&#8221 said Schweichler, pointing to areas that appeared oily or

syrupy. Dead fish, he said, are a regular occurrence.

Schweichler said he never smoked and once enjoyed excellent health, but was diagnosed with

asthma at 16 and began having seizures at 19. He wonders if the changes are a result of

summers spent swimming in the polluted water.

&#8216Our Love Canal&#8217

Monica Sorensen, a former Queen Street resident, also wonders if &#8220the hot creek&#8221

and emissions from the plant&#8217s smokestack are responsible for the cancers three of her

children came down with in their 30s.

Sylvia Walker, Schweichler&#8217s grandmother, sees the issue of class behind what she

calls &#8220our Love Canal.&#8221

&#8220A lot of people who don&#8217t have a lot of money and stuff, their kids go down

there swimming because that&#8217s all they have in the summertime, the only place they can

go,&#8221 Walker said.

Talk to people outside their houses about Erie Coke, and they&#8217re likely to swipe a

windowsill with a rag to show the ever-present soot. Charley Bootes did so on the 27-foot

speedboat he docks at Captain John Lampe Marina.

&#8220It just ruins my boat. I have to buff it five, six times a year,&#8221 Bootes said,

showing off the black powder.

Jim Smith, principal of East High School, also maintains a boat at the marina. But he said

what the soot does to his boat is the least of his issues with Erie Coke.

&#8220We try to teach our kids to do what&#8217s right and be law-abiding citizens, and

then they read in the paper that a plant that is right next to where they go to school, and

where they live, is allowed to get away with it just because they&#8217re big money,&#8221

Smith said.

&#8220It&#8217s not fair to the kids.&#8221

Now that Crane has settled with Pennsylvania regulators, there&#8217s growing expectation

it will do the same in Western New York.

&#8220I hope that the same agreement with Erie Coke can be reached at Tonawanda Coke,&#8221

said Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo. &#8220What&#8217s good for the people of Pennsylvania is

certainly good for the people of Western New York.&#8221