A Thursday afternoon meeting between Erie Coke officials, the City of Erie solicitor and Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) did not change the plant's decision to shut down.

They all met behind closed doors at Erie City Hall, but Erie Coke representatives walked out of the meeting, ignoring questions from reporters, after a half-hour.

The meeting ended with no good news for more than 130 workers, dashing hopes the plant closing could be averted and their jobs would be saved.

Officials later told Erie News Now the plant could not come into compliance with the city's cease-and-desist notice that recently banned the company from using the sewage treatment plant for its wastewater.

"Ultimately, they've concluded they cannot achieve compliance and cannot identify a date that they could," said Edward Betza, City of Erie Solicitor. "Given that, they elected to cease operations."

"The same problems that existed ten years ago still exist with Erie Coke," said Joe Schember, City of Erie Mayor. "They haven't gotten them fixed, and they show no promise of fixing them, so I think we have to stick to our guns."

"They did provide the DEP with a list of a shutdown procedure," said Thomas Decker, northwest community relations coordinator for the DEP. "Of course, we're going to be following that very carefully and be working with them to make sure everything is shut down they way it should be and that everybody is doing things safely for the environment."