The myth of green steel in Ohio and its steel valleys: Randi Pokladnik [Video]

UHRICHSVILLE, Ohio — I remember a time when steel manufacturing was king in the Ohio River Valley. The communities along the river were economically supported by many steel-making facilities, including Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel, U.S. Steel, and Weirton Steel. In the 1970s, over 13,000 people worked at Weirton Steel alone.

Entire families and multiple generations made a living working at the local steel mills. My family was no exception. My grandmother worked in the tin mill; my dad was a millwright on a blast furnace; my brother ran a crane in the mill; my sister and I were both chemists; and my uncle worked at the Browns Island coke plant. During the construction of this plant, on Dec. 15, 1972, there was an explosion that killed 19 men; one was our next-door neighbor. The explosion shook our home in Toronto, Ohio, which was located less than two miles from the coke plant.

Coke, …