12 hours ago
'Culture of non-compliance': Erie Coke pleads guilty to pollution with fine at $700,000
The Erie Coke Corp. has agreed to pay a $700,000 fine to end its criminal prosecution over the illegal release of air pollutants at its now-defunct plant at the foot of East Avenue along the Lake Erie shoreline.
Erie Coke and the U.S. Attorney's Office both recommended the $700,000 fine as part of the deal that accompanied Erie Coke's guilty plea to two felony counts in U.S. District Court in Erie on Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter accepted the guilty plea on behalf of Erie Coke as a corporate defendant. She set sentencing for Oct. 7.
Erie Coke was indicted on eight felony counts of environmental fraud in November 2022. The corporation faced a fine of up to $500,000 on each count.
The corporation pleaded guilty to the lead count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act from October 2015 to December 2019, when the plant closed. It also pleaded guilty to one count of violating what is known as a Title V permit requirements, referring to the type of environmental permit the plant needed to operate.
Erie Coke "fostered a culture of non-compliance," the prosecutor, Pittsburgh-based Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole A. Vasquez Schmitt, said in court.
A lawyer for Erie Coke, Rodney Personius, of Buffalo, entered the guilty plea. He said Erie Coke agreed to the plea deal and recommended fine.
The plant, whose owners are based in Buffalo, was accused of deliberately bypassing air-pollution monitors at the 137-employee plant as it made coke — a derivative of coal produced by heating coal in sealed ovens at temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the indictment.
Erie Coke no longer owns the 182-acre site of the plant, the focus of government-funded environmental cleanup. The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority acquired the property in early 2024, and the Port Authority and the Erie County Development Authority plan to redevelop the site.
The Erie Coke site had been used for industrial manufacturing since 1833. The site had been coke plant since 1925.
This is a developing story. Return to for updates.
Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@ or 814-870-1813.
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie Coke pleads guilty in pollution case, agrees to pay $700,000 fine
