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STATE OF |
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BEFORE THE INDIANA
DEPARTMENT |
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COMMISSIONER OF THE
DEPARTMENT Complainant, v. COKENERGY LLC and INDIANA
HARBOR Respondent. |
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AGREED ORDER
Complainant and Respondents
desire to settle and compromise this action without hearing or adjudication of
any issue of fact or law, and consent to the entry of the following Findings of
Fact and Order. Pursuant to IC
13-30-3-3, entry into the terms of this Agreed Order does not constitute an
admission of any violation contained herein.
Respondents’ entry into this Agreed Order shall not constitute a waiver
of any defense, legal or equitable, which Respondents may have in any future
administrative or judicial proceeding, except a proceeding to enforce this
order.
I.
FINDINGS OF
1.
Complainant is
the Commissioner (“Complainant”) of the Indiana Department of Environmental
Management (“IDEM”), a department of the State of
2.
Respondents are
Cokenergy LLC (“Respondent A”) and Indiana Harbor Coke Company (“Respondent
B”). Respondent A owns and operates a heat
recovery steam generator and turbine generator with United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) ID No. 089-00383, Part 70 Permit No. 11135 (“Permit A”),
located at 3210 Watling Street in East Chicago, Lake County, Indiana (“Site”). Respondent B owns and operates a coal
carbonization facility with United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
ID No. 089-00382, Part 70 Permit No. 11311 (“Permit B”), located at 3210
Watling Street in East Chicago, Lake County, Indiana (“Site”).
3.
IDEM has
jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter of this action.
4.
Pursuant to IC
13-30-3-3, IDEM issued a Notice of Violation on April 5, 2007 via Certified
Mail to:
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James Schaddel, General Manager |
CT Corporation System |
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Cokenergy LLC |
Registered Agent for: |
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Cokenergy LLC |
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Michael Dingus, President |
CT Corporation System |
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Indiana Harbor Coke Company |
Registered Agent for: |
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Indiana Harbor Coke Company |
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5.
During an
investigation conducted by a representative of IDEM, the following violations
were found:
For Respondent A:
a. Pursuant
to D.1.2 of Part 70 permit No. 11135 and 326 IAC 7-4.1-7, Cokenergy shall
comply with the sulfur dioxide emission limit in pounds per hour for the heat
recovery coke carbonization waste gas stack, identified as Stack ID 201,
combined with the sixteen (16) vents from Indiana Harbor Coke Company of a
twenty-four (24) hour average emission rate of one thousand six hundred
fifty-six pounds per hour (1,656 lb/hr).
Respondent
A is responsible for sulfur dioxide emissions of 2,298 lb/hr (24 hour average)
during an outage of the desulfurization and baghouse system from November 3,
2006 to November 5, 2006, in violation of Part 70 permit No. 11135 condition
D.1.2 and 326 IAC 7-4.1-7.
For
Respondent B:
a. Pursuant
to D.1.11(a)(5) of Part 70 permit No. 11311 and 326 IAC 7-4.1-8, Indiana Harbor
Coke Company Vent Stacks (16 total) in combination with Cokenergy’s heat
recovery coke carbonization waste gas stack identified as Stack ID 201 shall be
limited to 1,656 lb/hr total for a 24 hour average.
Respondent
B is responsible for sulfur dioxide emissions of 2,298 lb/hr (24 hour average)
during an outage of the desulfurization and baghouse system from
b.
Pursuant to
D.1.11(b) of Part 70 permit No. 11311 and 326 IAC 7-4.1-8, a maximum of
nineteen percent (19%) of the coke oven waste gases leaving the common tunnel
shall be allowed to be vented to the atmosphere on a twenty-four (24) hour
basis.
Respondent
B vented between 54% and 100% of coke oven waste gases directly to the
atmosphere during an outage of the desulfurization and baghouse system from
c.
Pursuant to
D.1.5(c) of Part 70 permit No. 11311 and 326 IAC 2-3, combined PM from the 16
vent stacks shall be limited to 36.1 lb/hr (both filterable and condensable),
averaged over a 24 hour period. This is
equivalent to exhaust waste gases being vented from the coke ovens from 19% of
vent stacks in a 24 hour period.
Respondent
B vented between 54% and 100% of coke oven waste gases directly to the
atmosphere during an outage of the desulfurization and baghouse system from
November 3, 2006 to November 5, 2006, in violation of Part 70 permit No. 11311
condition D.1.5(c) and 326 IAC 2-3.
6. This
Agreed Order, and compliance with its terms and conditions, shall resolve all
violations cited in the Notice of Violation issued to Respondents listed in
Findings of Fact Paragraph No. 4.
7. In
recognition of the settlement reached, Respondents waive any right to
administrative and judicial review of this Agreed Order.
II.
ORDER
1. This
Agreed Order shall be effective (“Effective Date”) three (3) business days
after the date this Agreed Order is signed by the Commissioner or the
Commissioner’s delegate. This Agreed
Order shall have no force or effect until the Effective Date.
2. Except
as specified in paragraph 4 and 5 below, Respondent A shall comply with 326 IAC
7-4.1-7.
3. Except
as specified in paragraph 4 and 5 below, Respondent B shall comply with 326 IAC
7-4.1-8 and 326 IAC 2-3.
4. Respondent
A shall implement the compliance plan set forth in Attachment A no later than
5. Complainant
recognizes that Respondent A’s baghouse and spray dryer absorbers will need to
be shut down during the outage to implement the engineering work described in
Order Paragraph Nos. 4 and Attachment A.
Upon
providing documentation that Respondent B has satisfactorily complied with the “Emissions
Minimization Plan” described in Attachment B, IDEM may consider air emissions
exceedances that result from the baghouse and spray dryer absorbers being off
during the outage to be caused by circumstances beyond the control of the
Respondents and may exercise the enforcement discretion accorded to it under IC
13-30.
6. All
submittals required by this Agreed Order, unless Respondents are notified
otherwise in writing by IDEM, shall be sent to:
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Rebecca
Hayes, Enforcement Case Manager |
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Office
of Enforcement – Mail Code 60-02 |
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Indiana
Department of Environmental Management |
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7. Respondent
A is assessed a civil penalty of Thirty Two Thousand Four Hundred Dollars ($32,400.00).
Said penalty amount shall be due and
payable to the Environmental Management Special Fund within forty-five (45)
days of the Effective Date. In the event
that the civil penalty is not paid within forty-five (45) days of the Effective
Date, Respondent A shall pay interest on the unpaid balance at the rate
established by IC 24-4.6-1-101. The
interest shall continue to accrue until the civil penalty is paid in full.
8. Respondent
B is assessed a civil penalty of Forty Eight Thousand Six Hundred Dollars ($48,600.00). Said penalty amount shall be due and payable
to the Environmental Management Special Fund within forty-five (45) days of the
Effective Date. In the event that the
civil penalty is not paid within forty-five (45) days of the Effective Date,
Respondent B shall pay interest on the unpaid balance at the rate established
by IC 24-4.6-1-101. The interest shall
continue to accrue until the civil penalty is paid in full.
9. In
the event the terms and conditions of the following paragraphs are violated,
Complainant may assess and Respondent A shall pay a stipulated penalty in the
following amount:
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Paragraph |
Violation |
Stipulated
Penalty |
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4 |
Baghouse modifications
described not completed by December 1, 2008 or such later date as agreed to
by the parties under paragraph 4 above. |
$500 per week |
10. Stipulated
penalties shall be due and payable within thirty (30) days after Respondents
receive written notice that Complainant has determined a stipulated penalty is
due. Assessment and payment of
stipulated penalties shall not preclude Complainant from seeking any additional
relief against Respondents for violations of this Agreed Order. In lieu of any of the stipulated penalties
set out above, Complainant may seek any other remedies or sanctions available
by virtue of Respondents’ violation of this Agreed Order or Indiana law,
including, but not limited to, civil penalties pursuant to IC 13-30-4.
11. Civil
and stipulated penalties are payable by check to the “Environmental Management
Special Fund.” Checks shall include the Case
Number of this action and shall be mailed to:
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Indiana
Department of Environmental Management |
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Cashier
– Mail Code 50-10C |
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12. This
Agreed Order shall apply to and be binding upon Respondents and their
successors and assigns. Respondents’ signatories to this Agreed Order certify
that they are fully authorized to execute this Agreed Order and legally bind
the party they represent. No change in
ownership, corporate, or partnership status of Respondents shall in any way
alter their status or responsibilities under this Agreed Order.
13. In the
event that any terms of this Agreed Order are found to be invalid, the
remaining terms shall remain in full force and effect and shall be construed
and enforced as if this Agreed Order did not contain the invalid terms.
14. Respondents
shall provide a copy of this Agreed Order, if in force, to any subsequent
owners or successors before ownership rights are transferred. Respondents shall ensure that all contractors,
firms and other persons performing work under this Agreed Order comply with the
terms of this Agreed Order.
15. This
Agreed Order is not and shall not be interpreted to be a permit or a
modification of an existing permit. This
Agreed Order, and IDEM’s review or approval of any submittal made by Respondents
pursuant to this Agreed Order, shall not in any way relieve Respondents of
their obligation to comply with the requirements of their applicable permit or
any applicable Federal or State law or regulation.
16. Complainant
does not, by its approval of this Agreed Order, warrant or aver in any manner
that Respondents’ compliance with any aspect of this Agreed Order will result
in compliance with the provisions of any permit, order, or any applicable Federal
or State law or regulation.
Additionally, IDEM or anyone acting on its behalf shall not be held
liable for any costs or penalties Respondents may incur as a result of
Respondents’ efforts to comply with this Agreed Order.
17. Nothing
in this Agreed Order shall prevent or limit IDEM’s rights to obtain penalties
or injunctive relief under any applicable Federal or State law or regulation,
except that IDEM may not, and hereby waives its right to, seek additional civil
penalties for the same violations specified in the NOV.
18. Nothing
in this Agreed Order shall prevent IDEM or anyone acting on its behalf from
communicating with the EPA or any other agency or entity about any matters
relating to this enforcement action.
IDEM or anyone acting on its behalf shall not be held liable for any
costs or penalties Respondents may incur as a result of such communications
with the EPA or any other agency or entity.
19. This
Agreed Order shall remain in effect until IDEM issues a case resolution letter.
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TECHNICAL RECOMMENDATION: |
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RESPONDENT: |
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Department of Environmental Management |
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Cokenergy LLC |
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Craig Henry |
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Indiana Harbor Coke Company |
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COUNSEL FOR COMPLAINANT: |
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COUNSEL FOR RESPONDENTS: |
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For the Department of Environmental Management |
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Cokenergy, LLC |
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Deputy Attorney General |
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APPROVED AND ADOPTED BY THE INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL |
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MANAGEMENT THIS |
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, 2008. |
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Signed on September 30, 2008 |
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Thomas W. Easterly |
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Commissioner |
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ATTACHMENT A
Proposed
Modification
Engineering Design
The following engineering
design is presented to Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM)
and the Indiana Office of the Attorney General (
IHCC and Cokenergy operate
the first non-recovery battery in the
The combined IHCC and
Cokenergy facility is unique, as Cokenergy has two flue gas desulphurization
devices, which allows one to be operated while the other is being serviced. More recent non-recovery batteries built or
planned do not include redundant emission controls. Therefore, all other non-recovery batteries
in the
While Cokenergy has a
redundant FGD unit, there is only one baghouse.
The Cokenergy facility was designed to allow various modules of the
baghouse to be dampered off so the baghouse can be serviced without venting.
The dampers that allow this
on-line servicing are operated by poppet valves. Over the course of operation there have been
four incidents that have required the baghouse, and subsequently the flue gas
desulphurization units, to be shut down and three of those incidents were
related to the poppet valves. These
dampers are critical components, as they allow air to be controlled for
cleaning the bags and allowing individual modules to be dampered off (isolated
from flow) so bags can be safely replaced and other work performed. Figure 1 shows the configuration and
arrangement of the poppet valves.
IHCC/Cokenergy was designed
by Hamon Engineering (formerly Research Cottrell). Most baghouse fabric filter units, including
all baghouses designed by Hamon Engineering, control flow and damper off
modules by means of poppet valves. Each
baghouse module has two poppet-type dampers.
In Hamon-designed baghouses for such coke plants, the dampers (48”
diameter, vertically mounted dampers with horizontal metal-to-metal seals) are
actuated via poppet valves connected by rods.
Cokenergy’s rods are affixed to the dampers at one spot via “spider”
frames. There are 32 poppet valves in 16
modules of the system, located in fabric filter outlet plenum. (See Figure 2, Existing conditions)
The compartment outlet
dampers prevent clean air from entering the module. They work in conjunction with the compartment
inlet dampers, which allow hot gas from the battery to enter the fabric filter
subsystem for cleaning. Both are needed
to isolate individual modules for cleaning filter bags and to perform work
within the compartment.
At each failure event,
Cokenergy has improved the failed components while retaining the original
design. However, each re-engineered
solution employed has moved the failure point to the next weakest point in the
system. Cokenergy has reconsidered the
damper design and noted the following issues:
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Poppet valve
failures occur when the gas flow permanently deforms the 1-1/4” shaft in the
open position
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The damper plate
is secured to the shaft by pins on the top side (in the clean gas duct)
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To remove a
damaged shaft, workers have to enter the clean gas duct, which requires a total
baghouse/FGD outage
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There is no
support for the damper plate and shaft when in the open position
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There is only
one shaft guide, which have been prone to breakage if the shaft bends and the
poppet valve attempts to close
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Frequently, the
broken damper plates will slide and further damage the adjacent damper plates
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A deformed shaft
can also break the collar of the spider support and allow the shaft to bend
further
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Non-working
poppet valves preclude normal pulse air cleaning of the fabric filter bags, as
the velocity of the incoming flue gas will not allow the material (filter cake)
collected on the bags to fall off (this creates a high differential pressure
across the bag, reducing its collection efficiency, and can cause eventual
failure)
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Normal
maintenance can not be performed on a compartment (replace bags, inspection)
without fully operational poppet valves
Highlights of Modification (see Figure 3)
Cokenergy proposes to add a
shaft guide within the outlet manifold poppet box, strengthen the existing
guide by using 1-1/2” pipe with 2” pipe sleeve collar, and increase the shaft
diameter to 1-7/8 in. The revised
attachment point on the damper plate will extend through the damper plate from
the top side to the bottom side.
The re-engineering work to
the poppet valves described above should eliminate the valves as a source of
component failures. Therefore, these
repairs should help further minimize the need for outages relating to the
poppet valves, as repairs can be made subsequently without entering the clean
gas duct.
Outage Time Required for the Project
The project will require the
Cokenergy plant to be shut down for approximately five full days. During this time, the hot exhaust gases from
the coke plant will be vented through the emergency vent stacks. To minimize emissions during this time, this
outage will be planned and coordinated with the host mill (Mittal Steel), and
the coke plant operator, IHCC. IHCC has
prepared an emissions minimization plan for the engineering design outage,
which is included within this submittal as Attachment B. Crews will be working around the clock to
restore plant operation as quickly as possible in order to minimize
emissions. Mittal Steel requires advance
knowledge of scheduled outage in order to assure safe operations and business
continuity given the loss of steam and power from the Cokenergy boilers and
steam turbines.
Explanation of total cost including all labor &
materials
Cokenergy estimates the cost
of the complete project to re-engineer all the poppet valves will be between
$255,000 and $277,500. This includes all
materials, scaffolding, parts, and the associated regular and overtime labor.
While this re-engineering
solution cannot guarantee that other unforeseen breakdowns that require repair
outages will be completely eliminated, Cokenergy believes this solution is
cost-effective and more protective than installing a redundant baghouse system
with capital costs of $22 million dollars, and additional risks of process and
operational complexity and downtime.
Figure
1
Figure 2
Figure
3
ATTACHMENT B
Indiana
Harbor Coke Company
Emissions
Minimization Plan
This “Emissions Minimization
Plan” is designed to ensure that excess sulfur dioxide and particulate
emissions are minimized to the extent possible during the installation of the
redesigned poppet valves in the Cokenergy baghouse.
To resolve the Notice of
Violation (NOV) issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management
(IDEM) on
The action plan between Indiana
Harbor Coke company (IHCC) and Cokenergy will consist of the following
elements:
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Pre-planning
meetings will be conducted to coordinate and communicate all operational
activities between the two companies during the poppet valve installation.
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The two
companies will establish a critical path of operations to reduce, to the extent
possible, the time needed to install the poppet valves.
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The two
companies will conduct daily update meetings during the installation of the
poppet valves to ensure that the project is on schedule.
·
To the extent
possible, without causing damage to our ovens, IHCC will reduce the plant wide
average coal charge weight from 43 tons to between 38 and 40 tons.
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While IHCC
already uses a low sulfur coal blend, during the poppet valve installation,
IHCC will evaluate the opportunity to utilize a coal blend that has lower
sulfur content than that normally used at the plant. This minimization opportunity is dependent on
the availability of lower sulfur coal from our suppliers.
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An emissions
summary report will be prepared and made available for review upon completion
of the poppet valve installation.
This action plan is
consistent with the planned shutdown operating procedures outlined in our
Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction Plan (see IHCC SSMP 02.01.07, Revision 1).