After a constant bombardment of gritty, sooty layers of nastiness found on on cars and buildings over the past week, pollution from the 80-year LTV coke plant moving from bad to worse.

Pungent black smoke seeps out from the Hazelwood coking plant where 19 of 250 coke ovens are operating without pollution controls with the permission of federal regulators.

As a result, soot levels have increased. Benzene and hydrogen sulfide emissions are higher than they have been since the early 1980s. Hydrogen sulfide exceeded federal standards three days in a row during the weekend at Allegheny County Health Departement monitors in Hazelwood.

It's gotten so bad that Health Department monitoring equipment at the Gladstone Middle School and Hammerfield Playground in Hazelwood measures sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, benzene and soot 24 hours a day.

An official from the Health Department division for air quality stated that benzene levels had hit 170 to 190 parts per billion -- their highest level in almost 20 years. Surprisingly, there are no federal standards for benzene.

In short, the stuff stinks.

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