The Allegheny County Health Department today issued a press release announcing that there was a breakdown at U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson facility in North Braddock over the weekend.
Here’s what ACHD sent out:
Over the weekend there was an issue at the Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, according to a breakdown report submitted to ACHD by US Steel.
The report also mentions that the incident on February 23rd occurred at 7 am and resulted in damage to the building. US Steel has tarped the hole until a permanent repair can be made and slowed down production. For more information regarding issues within the Edgar Thomson facility reach out to U.S. Steel.
The required pollution monitors were not damaged by this issue. The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) will continue to investigate the breakdown.
GASP has reached out to ACHD to see if the breakdown at Edgar Thomson over the weekend could also be related to sky-high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide at the North Braddock monitor today - levels that exceeded Pennsylvania’s 24-hour-average standard.
ACHD responded immediately, stating:
The cause of the H2S values are under investigation and we cannot provide any further comments at this time.
We thank ACHD for the transparency. Stay tuned, we are following this issue closely and will keep you posted as more details emerge.