is a
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania based company that offers products and services that remove contaminants and odors from liquids and gases. The company was originally formed as the Pittsburgh Coke & Chemical Company, which provided products that assisted with the city's formerly huge steel industry. However, as steel processing shrunk in America, the company began to go in a new direction. It has been specializing specifically in carbon for nearly 30 years.
Calgon Carbon divides its operations among 4 segments. The
Activated Carbon portion of the corporation, which provides the majority of revenues, manufactures granular, powered, and extruded carbon. These chemicals remove and absorb organic compounds from liquids and gases. These organic compounds are later burned off at the Pittsburgh plant so the carbon can be reused. Granular activated carbon especially useful in the process of water purification. The Engineered Systems segments designs and builds carbon absorption systems and ion exchange and separation devices. The food, biotechnology, sanitation, and pharmaceutical industries all utilize products from Calgon Carbon. The Services Options branch of the company provides mobile carbon absorption equipment and also provides for absorption monitoring. Finally, the Consumer Products division provides carbon cloth, charcoal, and water purifiers.
The company's main operations are centered in North America, but Calgon has a presence in Europe and fully owns the company called Chemviron Carbon.
In September of
2006 , Calgon Carbon announced it would be replacing its
Pension Plan with an "enhanced"
401(k) Plan in order to satisfy new legislation requiring companies to fully fund their defined benefit plans.
Scorecard has rated the Calgon facility at 200 Neville Road as one of the dirtiest polluters in the country in their 2002 publication.http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/facility.tcl?tri_id=15225CLGNC200NE#major_chemical_releases
This facility operates within close proximity to over 300,000 men, women, and children. Operation of this plant is particularly negligent because of the Ohio Valley's topography and susceptability to frequent inversions - like the inversion that killed 68 people over four days in
Donora . Even before the three day inversion was over 43% of the population had become ill and 20 were dead.
Along with other toxins, the Calgon Carbon facility sends out large amounts of
Ammonia which is caustic and can cause serious health damage or death. http://oaspub.epa.gov/enviro/multisys2.get_list?FACILITY_UIN=110000329617
