WCI pays 1.7M for migratory-bird deaths

WARREN -- WCI Steel will pay 1.7 million to settle a lawsuit that the federal government filed over the death of migratory birds who stopped at the mill's sludge ponds in 2002.
The costs include a 620,000 payment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, attorney fees and costs for putting up nets and cleanup work.
Tim Roberts, a spokesman for the Warren steelmaker, said money for the payment and other costs had been set aside when WCI emerged from bankruptcy protection, so it will not affect the profits of the newly reorganized company.
WCI signed a consent decree with the EPA on Monday in order to avoid litigation.
The EPA filed a lawsuit against the steelmaker Monday but that was only so that the reorganized company could be part of the settlement, Roberts said.
The action began when birds, mainly Canada geese, were found to be dying in ponds that WCI used to contain oily wastes generated at the mill.
Roberts said the consent decree calls for the placement of nets over a wastewater treatment pond and two of the mill's three remaining sludge ponds.
Since 2002, WCI had been shooting off air canons to scare away the geese, but those will no longer be used.