A Birmingham coke plant that has been shuttered for more than 18 months due to air pollution violations now faces a lawsuit over 392 alleged water pollution violations.

Birmingham-based environmental groups Black Warrior Riverkeeper and GASP filed a notice of intent to sue Bluestone Coke on Friday, alleging that the shuttered facility has continued to spew untreated wastewater into Five Mile Creek. They documented 392 times that Bluestone itself reported violations of the Clean Water Act.

The groups say that if Bluestone does not clean up the water leaving the plant within 60 days, they will file a Clean Water Act lawsuit against the company.

“Closed or not, it’s Bluestone’s responsibility to keep contaminated water from flowing off the property,” said Sarah Stokes, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, which represents Black Warrior Riverkeeper.

“Companies like Bluestone cannot pollute our air and rivers at the expense of Birmingham communities and businesses.”

Bluestone Coke is owned by the family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, a coal magnate who is now running for U.S. Senate. The company is led by the governor’s son, Jay Justice.

Bluestone did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the alleged violations.

The plant produced coke, a coal-based product used to make steel. At the plant, coal was baked in superheated, low-oxygen coke ovens to remove impurities from the coal to produce fuel for blast furnaces. The process can create air and water pollution problems and has been tied to harmful contaminants such as naphthalene, benzene, toluene, chlorobenzene, benzo(a)pyrene and others.

Located in North Birmingham Superfund site

Bluestone Coke is located in the center of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 35th Ave Superfund site, surrounded by low-income neighborhoods where a majority of the residents are Black.

A coke plant has been in operation on the site for more than 100 years, and the facility is listed as one of the “potentially responsible parties” for contaminated soil pollution in the Superfund site.

Birmingham-based environmental group GASP collected air samples surrounding the plant in 2019 and 2020 showing high levels of napthalene and benzene, two known or suspected carcinogens.

GASP Executive Director Michael Hansen said that polluters like Bluestone must be held accountable for their actions.

“Bluestone Coke has consistently prioritized its own interests and greed over the health and well-being of north Birmingham families,” Hansen said in a news release. “For more than a century, these communities were subjected to unjust, dangerous industrial practices. We must hold polluters like Bluestone accountable.”

Black Warrior Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke said Five Mile Creek, where the discharges were documented, was a “beautiful spring-fed stream, but it has unfortunately been a dumping ground for industrial polluters for many decades due to inaction by environmental regulatory agencies.”

“Five Mile Creek should be safe for fish, wildlife, and human recreation, but it is routinely fouled by polluted water from Bluestone Coke,” Brooke said in a news release.

A history of violations

The Bluestone Coke plant in north Birmingham, has been idle since the Jefferson County Department of Health declined to renew its air pollution permit in October 2021. Bluestone reached a settlement with the JCDH and agreed to pay $925,000 to resolve its previous air pollution violations and to make improvements to the plant to control air pollution before it could re-open.

That was the largest fine ever issued by the health department. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin criticized the agreement as being too lenient on the company.

“That’s not justice for those who have been harmed,” Woodfin said on Twitter. “It’s not even close.”

However, the company was approximately $300,000 behind on its payment schedule as of May 17, and continues to rack up late penalties for missed payments. The necessary improvements to reopen the plant have not been made, and it remains idle.