The president of the Regional Environment Committee for Unifor is applauding a decision made stateside.
Mark Bartlett says he's glad to hear U.S. Steel Corp has been fined $2.2 million plus an additional $1.9 million on facility upgrades to settle an alleged Clean Air Act violations with the U.S. Justice Department, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the states of Indiana and Illinois.
According to the Detroit Free Press, the company has agreed to replace a cracked pollution emitting bell that's on top of a blast furnace used for making molten iron at its Great Lakes Works facility on Zug Island.
Bartlett hopes the improvements reduce the amount of pollution coming from the plant.
Bartlett believes the improvements will be well received. "We all know 50-percent of the pollution that reaches Canada and our area comes from the US and from the Ohio Valley and all the industry there so we have our smog days and maybe this will help us out in reducing the number of smog days."
Bartlett says it's important to shine a light on pollution.
The company will also remove contaminated transformers at its Zug Island plant.
In the settlement, filed on Tuesday in a federal district court in Indiana, U-S Steel Corp did not admit to any wrongdoing.