State not about to walk away from fines against
AK
By Thomas Gnau
Ohio Attorney General Betty D. Montgomery said Thursday her
lawyers have
tried "desperately" to work with AK Steel Corp. to resolve
a decade of
environmental complaints about the company.
To no avail, she said.
"A lot of aggressive positions are being taken, probably on
both sides,"
Montgomery said in a meeting with The Journal's editorial
board.
AK Vice President of Public Affairs Alan McCoy says AK has
a right to
aggressively defend itself.
On behalf of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency,
Montgomery's office0oined a federal lawsuit against
the Middletown steelmaker filed in June
2000 in Cincinnati's U.S. District Court. Montgomery said
her office cannot
walk away from the suit without fines against AK.
The stance confirms the view of AK's principals that
Montgomery's office is
more interested in fines than resolution, McCoy said.
000200000615000003CE60F,When AK's attorneys have asked why,
state officials
are "unable to articulate a reason," he said.
AK has said the government wants punitive fines; company
leaders have also
said fines and environmental compliance costs may force
them to look at
whether they can afford to make steel in Middletown, where
steel has been
made for more than a century. AK has about 4,000 employees
in Middletown,
more than 11,000 in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
"One person's punitive fine is another person's legitimate
fine," Montgomery
said.
But determining how fines are paid, she added, is "open to
negotiation."
Montgomery said it's possible to end the suit in a way that
lets AK continue
making steel in Ohio.
The suit was in part a response to complaints dating back
to 1991 about "dust
and debris" drifting from the Middletown Works, Montgomery
said. She said8er office reached a point where it
could not "in good conscience not file
this lawsuit."
When her office told the U.S. Justice Department that a
lawsuit was imminent,
Montgomery said, federal officials said: "Wait. Let us take
the lead."
The federal government is the lead agency in the lawsuit,
she said. While the
state can settle separately in the lawsuit, the federal
government can
continue with its own suit, she said.
Montgomery was elected in 1994, the same year AK went
public from a five-year
partnership between part of Armco and Kawasaki Steel Corp.
Two years ago, AK
bought Armco. The company has reported a net loss of $16
million as of Sept.
30 this year.
