U.S. Steel Working to Restart Furnaces After Flood
Gary Works mill was flooded by a ruptured water line. (photo courtesy The Times of Northwest Indiana)
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowPittsburgh-based U.S. Steel Corp. (NYSE: X) says it continues work to get two of three active blast furnaces back online following a flood last week at the Gary Works mill. A 36-inch-wide water pipeline ruptured last Tuesday on mill property, flooding a portion of the complex.
The company says it has restored service to the largest of the three blast furnaces. The company says another furnace is currently in the process of coming back online. The third is expected to be operational later this week.
According to our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana, the pipe brings water from Lake Michigan into the mill to cool the furnaces and other equipment.
The flooding forced the mill to temporarily shut down steel making operations as a precaution. Gary Works produces 7.5 million tons a year in raw steel.
“We do not expect customers to be adversely impacted by this event,” said Amanda Malkowski, a spokesperson for U.S. Steel.
The newspaper reports U.S. Steel has been instructed by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to increase monitoring at the Gary Works location until further notice.
“No drinking water intake locations have been affected and there have been no observed impacts to wildlife,” IDEM spokesperson Sarah Bonick told the paper.
The company says additional water sampling is ongoing to ensure compliance with environmental regulatory requirements, “though we have not noted any exceedances in our testing to date,” said Malkowski.