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Activists Say ArcelorMittal Air Pollution Fines 'Slap On The Wrist'

By Rebecca Thiele

Posted May 20, 2019

The ArcelorMittal headquarters.

ArcelorMittal's facility in East Chicago. (Samantha Horton/IPB News)

Indiana steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal is expected to pay $2 million to the state and another $2.5 million to the federal government for air pollution violations in Northwest Indiana and Ohio. But activists say that’s far from enough. 

ArcelorMittal is one of the largest steel companies in the world. In 2011 and 2019, the federal government cited the company for emitting too much sulfur dioxide and other chemicals. Exposure to sulfur dioxide can make it more difficult to breathe and, in some cases, can be life threatening.

Thomas Frank is with the Community Strategy Group in East Chicago. He says thousands of residents suffer from illnesses like asthma that likely could be attributed to pollution from ArcelorMittal.

“At the scale of the harm that’s been done, this is a slap on the wrist and in the scale in terms of the profits that are being made,” Frank says.

Lake County has the highest rate of hospitalizations due to asthma in the state. Frank says it's been hard to keep up the fight against pollution from large industrial companies like ArcelorMittal. East Chicago recently lost two of its activists — one of whom died from bone cancer. 

“Literally these polluters are killing the community and their opponent to them,” Frank says.

A spokesperson for ArcelorMittal says the violations are a result of “sporadic” issues and not a long-term trend with its facilities. Since 2011, the company says it's spent more than $22 million to bring its facilities up to environmental standards.

The public has 30 days to comment on the consent decree.

Indiana Environmental reporting is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project developing Indiana-specific projections and informed responses to problems of environmental change.

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