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Fair and cool weather Is in storeday. and Monday. Highs both 3ys.In.the low to.mfd 70s; lowsnight in the mid 40s to mid 50s. Chance of rain is near zero per snt today and tonight.SUNDAYCovering Steubenville, Wintersville, Weir ton, Follansbee, Wellsburg, Toronto, AfiiVol. 172 No. 96Sunday, September 11, 1977, STEUBENVILLBy STEVE WEISS Herald-Star Staff Writerne of the oldest industrial ms in Steubenville was the deral Paperboard Co. on rth Third Street.Federal Paperboard had been business since 1813 under rious ownerships and names. But it was modern-day oblems which forced the rmanent closing of the 2ility on Aug. 23.Because of the city’s pendency on heavy industry r jobs and prosperity, liution from mills and fac* *ies was considered a goodin.Smoke means jobs, people lieved.Thus, when officials of ideral Paperboard said ability to comply with en-ronmental regulations was e reason for the plant’s mise, many people in town amed the U.S. Environmental 'otectioo Agency for the loss more than loo jobs.board’s emissions dropped froma high of 1,054 tons a year to 123 tonsia year. But the EPA said the company had to reduce its emissions to 97 tons a year.That figure was based on Federal Paperboard’s boiler capacity of 170 million BTUs (British Thermal Units). The company requested that the boiler capacity— and thus the pollution standards—be lowered because only 85 per cent capacity was being used due to the falloff in orders.The EPA, according to McCabe, refused and accused Fedreral Paperboard of trying to write its own regulations.Art Smith, a lawyer in EPA’s Region Five Chicago office, said the agency could not make such a change because the regulations were adopted in Columbus, where it would have to be made.Smith said the EPA insists on complete compliance with standards for fear of total abandonment of those stan-or put in scrubbers. ‘McCabe reacted to Smith’s suggestions with disdain, citing the tremendous cost of scrubbers and increased expense of shipping in Western coal compared with the relatively cheap high-sulfur Eastern Ohio coal.lt;(Dust collectors trap the bigpieces of soot, but the more you collect, the finer the pieces get and adding more collectors wouldn’t do any good,” McCabe said.Smith admitted that the EPA does not consider economic problems when ordering industries to comply with air quality standards, but cited the state as justification for the federal policy.“They adopt the regulations, so we assume that they considerwhether meeting them will cause economic hardships,” he said.North Ohio Valley Air Authority (NOVAA) Director Pat J. DeLuca said Federal Paperboard didn’t have to take a second stack test in order to have its boiler capacity derated.“All they needed to do was putit down in black-and-white that they’d shut down another boiler to substantiate it,” he said.DeLuca claims Federal Paperboard’s emissions were in compliance with the EPA standards, except for about a two-week period, during which the company apparently was burning a lower grade of coal.DeLuca, who said NOVAA spent between 40 and 60 hours conferring with company andEPA officials in an attempt keep open the plant, feels i EPA “went farther” w Federal Paperboard than it 1 with other firir But neither NOVAA nor EPA were of any help in unsuccessful attempt brighten the plant’s gioo economic picture. NOV couldn’t help and the EPA-agency policy—wouldn’t.Smith said the EPA kr about Federal Paperboai financial woes, but had no v of knowing if the comp; merely was “poor mouthii itself, or really was in trouble Had the firm continued operate, and without meei the standards, Smith said EPA could have filed eithe civil or criminal suit. He add however, that in light of
Newspaper Details
Herald Star
Steubenville, Ohio, US
Sun, Sep 11, 1977
Page 23
Full Page
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Public L.
OH, USA 11 Jul 2022
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