Appeal certain for steel-mill permit

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Attorneys for Nucor Corp. and Big River Steel LLC said Tuesday that there will be an appeal no matter the outcome of a hearing this week before the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission over an air permit for the new Mississippi County steel mill.

Big River plans to build a$1.1 billion mill near Osceola. Nucor operates two steel mills near Blytheville in Mississippi County.

Nucor filed an appeal with the commission in October over the air permit Big River received for the plant from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality.

Nucor has said that it is simply seeking “a thorough and fair review of the data, assumptions and process used in issuing the permit.”

Big River planned to begin construction on the plant in December, but Nucor’s appeal halted that. Last month, however, the Pollution Control and Ecology commission lifted the stay on the air permit, allowing construction to begin on Big River’s plant.

In December, Alan Perkins, a Little Rock attorney representing Big River, said the delay of construction had caused concern among the plant’s investors and posed a threat to the company’s ability to meet deadlines set under the provisions of Amendment 82 to the state constitution by which the Legislature approved the issuance of $125million in bonds.

The plant is to employ 525 at an average salary of $75,000 a year when including potential bonuses.

In several hours of arguing Tuesday over what should be admitted as evidence at the hearing, Big River objected to dozens of details Nucor had filed in pretrial testimony.

David Taggart, a Nucor attorney from Shreveport, told Charles Moulton, the administrative law judge for Pollution Control and Ecology, that since the case undoubtedly will be appealed, Moulton should not limit the testimony.

But in many instances, Moulton upheld Big River’s objections. Moulton chastised Nucor for including evidence in the testimony that wasn’t included in a 30-day comment period, which is not permissible.

In an interview, Taggart said he would have preferred not to have Moulton’s rulings against Nucor.

“But we do believe we’ll be able to present our case and let Nucor present the issues that it has with the permit and the permit process,” Taggart said. “The judge ruled in my favor a fair number of times as well.”

If Moulton rules in favor of Big River Steel, the company can continue with construction, even if Nucor appeals the decision, Perkins said.

The hearing is scheduled to continue through Friday.

Business, Pages 24 on 02/19/2014