TPT January 2008

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From the AmericaS
103 January 2008 ›
with major operational challenges. This transaction will improve
rail operations on the CN system and the rest of the Chicago rail
network by moving CN trains out of the urban core to EJ&E lines on
the outskirts of the Chicago metropolitan area.”
Mr Harrison also cited the opportunity for CN to expand its service
to the North American steel industry. US Steel chairman and chief
executive officer John P Surma sounded a similar note, calling the
transaction ‘positive for all involved’. He said, “The communities in
which we operate will benefit from the EJ&E being part of a large
Class I railroad, while US Steel will be able to focus on the railroad
assets serving Gary Works.”
CN plans to invest approximately $100 million for integration, new
connections, and infrastructure improvements to add capacity on
the EJ&E line. Transtar operations not included in the agreement
will become the Gary (Indiana) Railway.
Pollution from US Steel’s Gary Works
attracts scrutiny
Staff reporter Michael Hawthorne of the Chicago Tribune has drawn
attention to a proposed water permit under consideration by the state
of Indiana that, according to environmental lawyers and former federal
regulators, would “scrap, relax, or omit limits on toxic chemicals and
heavy metals” dumped into a Lake Michigan tributary by the US Steel
Corp mill at Gary, some 15 miles southeast of Chicago (“Indiana
seeks to ease rules for Lake Polluter,” October 12).
According to the Tribune the blast furnaces, coke ovens, and steel
finishing mills of Gary Works already constitute the major source
of water pollution in the Lake Michigan basin. And Mr Hawthorne
perceived some subtlety in the state’s presentation of the wider
permissions sought by US Steel.
He wrote, “Language outlining the changes is buried in 117 densely
worded pages under consideration by the Indiana Department of
Environmental Management, which provoked a public outcry (in
2007) when it gave a nearby BP refinery permission to significantly
increase pollution discharged into the lake.”
While BP requested leave to dump more pollution, Indiana
regulators and US Steel officials claim that the proposal under
consideration will not allow Gary Works to increase the total of
pollutants it pumps into the Grand Calumet River before it empties
into Lake Michigan. But, Mr Hawthorne wrote, “The permit appears
to tell a different story.”
That story seems to be a hard read, at least for citizens and
environmental groups invited to file comments about the mitigations
being sought by US Steel. One Indiana resident who attended
a public meeting on the topic told the Tribune, “This permit is
indecipherable.”
› In other news of US Steel, the company on October 31 said that
its third-quarter 2007 profit fell 35 per cent, hurt by lower prices
and shipments, and costs related to raw materials and a recent
acquisition. The big steel maker said net income dropped to $269
million from $417 million a year earlier. Revenue increased nearly