No court ruling in the cited reporting has decided who is at fault. GASP and the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) accuse Jefferson County health officials of failing to act promptly on ABC Coke’s 2023 air-permit renewal; the county health officer disputes that accusation and says the agency was waiting for a federal EPA assessment. On October 2, 2026, the county told SELC it was moving the process forward, but the report does not establish that a new permit was issued.
What happened with ABC Coke’s permit?
ABC Coke is a by-product coke facility in Jefferson County, Alabama. An October 1, 2026, report by Inside Climate News describes the plant as owned by Drummond Coal and says the company submitted its air-permit renewal application in 2023. Jefferson County’s health department (JCDH) issued a draft permit in January 2026, but public progress then stalled, according to the report.
On September 30, 2026, GASP, represented by SELC, filed a petition in Jefferson County Circuit Court asking a judge to compel local health officials to act on the renewal. The petition says the delay deprived GASP and its members of rights under the Clean Air Act and local air rules. Those are the petitioners’ allegations, not findings by a court.
Who is responsible for the delay?
GASP and SELC’s position
GASP and SELC argue that the health officer had a statutory, nondiscretionary duty to act on the renewal. They say the delay denied the public procedural and substantive rights. GASP Executive Director Jilisa Milton said, “Communities should not have to wait indefinitely for the protections the law requires.”
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The county’s position
In a September 2026 letter to SELC, Jefferson County Health Officer David Hicks said the department “respectfully disagrees with the assertion that it has failed to fulfill its obligations under applicable law.” Hicks said JCDH was waiting for a Trump administration EPA “regulatory assessment.” The report says EPA had not answered the reporter’s questions about that assessment. SELC argued that no assessment was required and that the local agency should send a proposed permit to EPA for its formal 45-day review.
What the report establishes about the outcome
On October 2, the day after the petition was filed, JCDH told SELC it was moving forward with the permitting process, according to an SELC representative quoted by Inside Climate News. The report does not establish a final court decision or a completed renewed permit. It also does not establish that ABC Coke caused the delay: the petition described in the report targets the county health officer’s inaction, while ABC Coke submitted the application.
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What stage is the permit in?
The distinction between a draft, a proposed permit under EPA review, and a final permit matters. The reported January 2026 document was a draft. SELC says the county should send a proposed permit to EPA for formal review. The October 2 update says only that the county was moving the process forward; it does not say that EPA review occurred or that JCDH issued a final permit.
- 2023: ABC Coke submitted its renewal application, according to the report.
- January 2026: JCDH issued a draft permit, according to the report.
- September 30, 2026: GASP and SELC filed their petition in Jefferson County Circuit Court.
- October 2, 2026: JCDH told SELC it was moving forward, according to an SELC representative.
Why are nearby communities concerned?
The Inside Climate News report describes foundry coke as a high-carbon fuel made by heating coal to extreme temperatures and says ABC Coke has long polluted the air in Tarrant, next to north Birmingham. It also reports that the company agreed to pay a $775,000 civil penalty in 2019 over alleged Clean Air Act violations involving benzene releases. That characterization and figure are reported by the outlet; they are not an independent finding made here.
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The report summarizes fenceline monitoring at multiple coke-oven facilities in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Alabama as finding benzene levels as high as 14 times the occupational exposure limit recommended by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists. It says ABC Coke monitoring recorded levels more than 60 percent above that threshold, and reports a modeled increase of up to 1.7 cancer cases per 10,000 people in mostly Black areas of north Birmingham and Tarrant. These are figures attributed to the report: its cited story does not provide the monitoring dataset, modeling methods, or underlying assessment, so they should not be read as independently verified measurements or an EPA or ACGIH risk calculation.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the historical record show?
A 2019 GASP petition hosted by EPA identifies the facility’s permit as 4-07-0001-04 and describes ABC Coke as the largest merchant producer of foundry coke in the United States and Mexico. That document concerns an earlier permit proceeding; it does not establish the status or terms of the 2023 renewal. See the 2019 GASP petition hosted by EPA.
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