Erie Coke supervisor pleads guilty to violating Clean Air Act, says orders came from boss

A supervisor at the now-shuttered Erie Coke plant has pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act, ending his prosecution as the case of his boss, the plant superintendent, continues in federal court in Erie.

The supervisor, David Stablein, pleaded guilty to a felony conspiracy count on Friday.

He was charged in December with working with the plant superintendent, Anthony Nearhoof, to deliberately bypass environmental monitoring systems to prevent the detection of air-quality violations at Erie Coke. Nearhoof was indicted in November.

Charges filed:2nd Erie Coke employee charged with violating Clean Air Act at former plant

The charging document — which Stablein accepted as accurate at the plea hearing — said he acted under orders from Nearhoof and that Stablein also directed others at Erie Coke.

Stablein with the plea admitted to removing flue caps from the battery of ovens that made coke — a fuel source used in a variety of industries, including steel mills, according to court records.

The government said the improper removal of the caps released combustion gases directly into the air to avoid the plant's environmental monitoring systems in violation of the Clean Air Act.

Stablein pleaded guilty to violating the act between October 2015 through September 2018, when he stopped working for Erie Coke. The 137-worker plant closed in December 2019 due to chronic environmental problems. A blast furnace was first built on the site of the Erie Coke plant in 1833.

A massive environmental cleanup continues on the 162-acre Erie Coke property at the foot of East Avenue, along the Lake Erie shoreline just southeast of the entrance to Presque Isle Bay. The property is now a federal Superfund site. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed a $1 million lien on the property in 2021 to recoup cleanup costs.

Stablein's sentencing set for June in Erie federal court

Stablein, 54, faces up to five years in federal prison at his sentencing June 30 before U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter, who accepted his plea during a virtual hearing on Friday. She allowed Stablein to remain free on an unsecured bond of $10,000.

The government as part of the plea deal will ask Baxter to give Stablein credit for pleading guilty, said a prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Vasquez Schmitt, of Pittsburgh.

Baxter said she will use the federal sentencing guidelines and a probation officer's report on Stablein to help determine his sentence. The guidelines take into account a defendant's guilty plea and other factors.

Stablein said little at the hearing, as is typically the case at plea hearings. He said he understood the charge against him and said he was guilty. He will get a chance to address Baxter at length at his sentencing.

Erie Coke named as corporate defendant in case

Nearhoof, 41, of Pittsburgh, is the only other individual charged in the case, though the U.S. Attorney's Office also charged Erie Coke Corp. as a corporate defendant. The corporation was indicted with Nearhoof in November. An EPA investigation led to the criminal charges.

Nearhoof pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Nov. 17. He was released on an unsecured bond of $10,000 and has until March 6 to file pretrial motions.

Nearhoof started working at Erie Coke in 2001, became a foreman in 2003 and was eventually promoted to plant superintendent in October 2015, according to court records. He was the superintendent when Erie Coke shut down, according to court records.

No representatives of Erie Coke have made an appearance in court. A federal magistrate judge followed procedures for absentee corporate defendants and entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of Erie Coke at its arraignment on Dec. 7.

Stablein matches 'Co-Conspirator A' at Erie Coke

The cases against Nearhoof and Stablein took different paths to court. A federal grand jury indicted Nearhoof and Erie Coke on eight counts, including conspiracy. The U.S. Attorney's Office charged Stablein directly through what is known as a criminal information, and he waived an indictment on Friday, a move that typically signals a defendant wants to end a case quickly.

The description of Stablein in his criminal information matches the description of the person identified only as "Co-Conspirator A" in the indictment against Nearhoof.

Stablein, like Co-Conspirator A, supervised the "heatermen." They were the Erie Coke workers responsible for removing flue caps, but only for the legitimate purposes of performing maintenance and measuring temperatures, according to Nearhoof's indictment and Stablein's criminal information.

Erie Coke wanted to get around the monitoring systems to avoid environmental enforcement actions and to make money by "running the plant as much as possible," according to Nearhoof's indictment. Environmental enforcement actions could have forced costly repairs and required the plant to cease operations temporarily, the government said.

According to the criminal information against Stablein, which he said he agreed with at the plea hearing:

"It was a manner and means of the conspiracy that Anthony Nearhoof directed, instructed and pressured employees, including defendant David Stablein, to open coke oven flues to vent emissions in a manner that bypassed" the environmental monitoring systems.

"Such directives occurred via personal directives, by radio to workers on the batteries and sometimes in writing in a log book used by battery foremen to convey information shift to shift. Anthony Nearhoof and defendant David Stablein removed flue caps, and directed others to do so, in order to vent (emissions) directly into the atmosphere" and avoid the monitoring systems.

The emitted contaminants and pollutants released into the air included the chemicals benzene, toluene and xylene, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The EPA classifies benzene as a known carcinogen.

EPA: Erie facility emitting less cancer-causing ethylene oxide but questions remain

Long history of environmental problems at Erie Coke

The closing of the Erie Coke plant ended a protracted legal battle between the company and the state Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP announced in July 2019 that it would not renew the plant’s Title V operating permit — a permit issued under the Clean Air Act — because of persistent violations of environmental rules.

Erie Coke ended operations at the plant before it had the chance to make its case. Erie Coke announced it would shut down the plant on Dec. 19, 2019, after repeatedly failing to comply with the city of Erie’s requirements for wastewater discharge.

The EPA is overseeing the cleanup of the plant following a referral from the DEP.

In the criminal cases, the U.S. Attorney's Office in court records emphasizes that Erie Coke was located near Presque Isle Bay and in a residential area that also includes the Barber National Institute, the facility for adults and children with disabilities at 136 East Ave., just south of the former plant.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is seeking input from the public as part of its prosecution of the Erie Coke cases. The office is soliciting victim-impact statements from those who believe Erie Coke's operations harmed them due to pollutants or other issues.

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Supervisor pleads guilty in Erie Coke case, says orders came from boss