MIDDLETOWN — About 15 people, most of them environmental activists, turned out Thursday in hopes of blocking a proposal they claim could lead to further deterioration of Dicks Creek.

        Middletown-based AK Steel requested the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency consider tinkering with its loading limit permit for copper and zinc along the six-mile stream. At a public hearing Thursday on the draft permit, concerns were raised that any additional discharge would further jeopardize water quality that has deteriorated over the past 30 years.

        “AK Steel is a known violator of the environment, water and air,” said Edgar Hull of Salem, Ohio. “I don't see any rationale for giving them a permit. They already make a mess here in Middletown. They should clean that mess up.”

        Cathryn Ward of Mansfield, Ohio, said the permit request is “ludicrous” because of the company's record. “We need someone to have the strength and courage to fight against AK Steel,” she said.

        “I plead with you (the EPA) to have the courage to do the right thing.”

        No AK Steel officials attended the hearing.

        A group of about 20 area residents and activists recently gathered water samples, which they said would fingerprint AK Steel as the chief polluting party on Dicks Creek. The samples were sent to a laboratory. No results have been returned.

        The manufacturer has about 11,000 employees. Several companies border the same waterway.

        Alan McCoy, a spokesman for AK Steel, says the company has no intention of increasing its zinc and copper discharges. He said the proposal is meant to include a “more realistic measurement” of the company's chemical concentration and water flow at any given time.

        “For either of those measurements, we potentially can exceed our permit limit,” he said, adding that existing calculations “do not reflect normal operating conditions.” The company also requested the current permit be extended until Oct. 29.

        If the permit is adjusted, EPA officials said the discharges will not exceed water quality standards. The agency has no timetable fora final decision to approve the permit. Concerned residents can contact the EPA until Aug. 13.

        The federal and state EPA are in litigation with AK Steel for environmental violations.

        “If someone has information to the contrary, we would want to hear and consider that before the director makes a decision,” said Heidi Griesmer, a spokeswoman for Ohio EPA, who added that the permit alteration “won't have a great impact because it is simply recalculating how their flows are permitted.”

        Rachael Belz, a program director for Ohio Citizen Action, isn't so sure that the permit adjustment will only have a minimum impact. “It seems to be a slap in the face to neighbors, or anyone who cares, to allow (AK Steel) to pollute more.” AK Steel maintains that its environmental record is the best in the steel industry.

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