The company signed a consent decree that was filed April 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio in Cincinnati. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council also signed the order.

The agreement requires AK Steel to dredge and cleanup portions of Dicks Creek, an Ohio River tributary, which could cost more than $10 million. The company also will pay a civil penalty of $460,000 and spend $750,000 on a supplemental environmental project.

Under the agreement, AK does not admit fault in any of the violations.

The complaint, filed June 29, 2000, alleged AK Steel discharged polychlorinated biphenyl into Dicks Creek and failed to control air emissions. It also asserted that the firm spilled chemicals into the creek and exceeded permit limits for heavy metals, nitrogen, ammonia and cyanide on several occasions.

The company accused the state of having a vendetta against it and deliberately used biased and flawed sampling techniques to exaggerate the levels of PCB contamination in Dicks Creek and the impact on aquatic life and human health.

The Middletown-based steelmaker claimed it had documents and other evidence proving the state has manipulated and overstated the contamination in an Ohio River tributary to create bogus evidence against it.