U.S. Rep. Kelly pledges to lobby for Erie Coke cleanup funding

Offiicals estimate the environmental cleanup at Erie Coke could take as long as 20 years, cost tens of millions of dollars.

Rep. Mike Kelly toured the shuttered Erie Coke plant and pledged to seek federal funding for its cleanup.The Erie Coke site, spanning nearly 200 acres, is located within a state-designated Environmental Justice area.The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority acquired the abandoned property via eminent domain in 2024.The environmental cleanup at Erie Coke is expected to be the costliest in Erie County history.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly got his first detailed, up-close look at the shuttered Erie Coke property on the city’s east side on Aug. 21.

During an hour-long tour of the property with a host of other local and state officials, Kelly promised to fight for federal funding for the sprawling property’s environmental cleanup, which is almost certain to be the lengthiest and most expensive remediation project in Erie County’s history.

“It’s going to take all hands on deck,” Kelly, of Butler, R-16th Dist., said.

While Kelly said he could not guarantee federal funds for the Erie Coke cleanup, he pledged to lobby for such dollars, pointing out that he’s done so for other projects along the city’s waterfront.

Kelly pledged to do that despite the fact that President Donald Trump’s administration has moved to eliminate environmental protections and funding that reduce pollution in poorer communities and/or communities of color nationwide.

The Erie Coke site is in a state-designated Environmental Justice area, defined by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection as any census tract where 20% or more of the residents live at or below the federal poverty line or where 30% of the population identifies as a non-white minority. 

“We’ve had great success with other projects here in Erie,” Kelly said. “Absolutely, I will (try to secure federal funding).”

Erie Coke’s footprint

The Erie-Western Pennsylvania Port Authority set up the Aug. 21 tour.

An Erie Metropolitan Transit Authority bus shuttled dozens of visitors — including Kelly, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Jessica Shirley and Mike Carroll, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation — to various portions of the nearly 200-acre property at the foot of East Avenue.

Many buildings at the site have been demolished; some structures and concrete foundations remain. Much of the property is overgrown, and some Erie Coke property extends into Lake Erie, just east of Presque Isle Bay.

The property’s footprint includes approximately 2,000 feet of shoreline along the lake.

The Port Authority used eminent domain, a mechanism that gives government entities the power to take possession of private property for public use, to acquire the Erie Coke property at no cost in March 2024.

The Port Authority asserted that Erie Coke abandoned the property following the plant’s shutdown in December 2019 due to chronic pollution issues. The Erie County Redevelopment Authority is going after funding to finish the cleanup of the property, which is already the subject of state and federal remediation efforts and a federal criminal prosecution.

An expensive cleanup ‘without question’

Tina Mengine, the county Redevelopment Authority’s executive director, estimated that a full environmental cleanup of Erie Coke could take 10 to 20 years and cost as much as $70 million.

Mengine said that “without question” the Erie Coke cleanup will be the costliest environmental remediation in Erie County history “when you take in account the sheer size of the property, the length of time that Erie Coke operated, and the fact that Erie Coke operated as a bad actor.

“So you have a number of reasons why this is going to be so expensive,” Mengine said. “Probably 100% of the property is contaminated at some level. This is going to be a long, tedious process and it can only be cleaned up if we get the money.”

DEP has previously determined that pollutants from Erie Coke have contaminated shoreline sediments, and pollutants also were discharged into the lake improperly for years.

“Unfortunately, Erie Coke no longer exists. Although they are the responsible party, they don’t have any assets for us to go after them,” Shirley, the DEP secretary, said at the site on Aug. 21.

“A site like this (will) need some significant investment,” Shirley said, mentioning that similar large cleanups often involved a combination of federal and state remediation funds, such as Superfund dollars via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“I really think there’s a huge opportunity here,” Shirley said.

Carroll, the PennDOT secretary, added that a long range remediation/funding plan must be put in place.

“And then, like almost every project I’ve been involved in (during) my years in government, is boils down to how we’re going to pay for all of this. That’s the job before us.”

Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X at@ETNflowers.

(This story has been updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)