The Associated Press

HAVERHILL – The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has granted a steel coke processing company an air permit to operate a plant here.

Friday, March 02, 2001

HAVERHILL – The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has granted a steel coke processing company an air permit to operate a plant here.

The state issued the permit Tuesday for Haverhill North Coke Company, a division of Sun Coke Co., headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn.

The company’s proposal to build a $1 billion coke-processing plant near Haverhill, along the Ohio River, has been in the works since 1996.

About 200 to 400 people would work at the new coke plant, depending on operations there. Construction could also mean several hundred temporary jobs.

Scioto County’s unemployment rate is 9.8 percent, more than twice the state average.

The company needs to come up with some customers before it builds the plant, said Bob Walton, a member of the Southern Ohio Port Authority. The permit, which took 2 1/2 years to acquire, comes at a time when steel production is down nationally.

The city and county will have to provide water and sewage for the 400 acres being sought by the company, Walton said. The company also asked for an interchange off Ohio 52 to the site.

Coke is used as a fuel in the steel-making process.