The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality had to “scramble” to meet a department-selected deadline to issue a preliminary permit for the Big River Steel plant, according to testimony at a hearing Wednesday.
The hearing before the state’s Pollution Control and Ecology Commission addresses the air permit the Environmental Quality Department issued to Big River last year.
The complaint over the air permit was filed by Nucor Corp., an owner of two steel mills in Mississippi County. Big River plans to build a $1.1 billion mill at nearby Osceola.
Under Amendment 82 to the state constitution, the Legislature approved the issuance of $125 million in bonds to fund construction of the Big River plant.
Nucor has said that it is seeking “a thorough and fair review of the data, assumptions and process used in issuing the permit.” But Nucor opposed Big River’s efforts in the Legislature to secure the funding, arguing that the new plant would undermine Arkansas’ existing steel industry and could lead to a cutback in steel jobs.
David Taggart, a Nucor attorney, entered a series of email messages into the record that addressed the Department of Environmental Quality’s work to develop the air permit for the proposed Big River mill. The email messages were between department employees and Big River executives.
Taggart asked Teresa Marks, director of the department, about a June email sent to her and others that indicated Big River planned a meeting on June 25 in Osceola with the company’s investors, lenders and project participants. Big River asked if a representative from the department could be at the meeting to discuss the permit process.
Marks agreed to attend the meeting.
“Director Marks, what did you tell them about the status of the permit?” Taggart asked Wednesday.
Big River wanted to know how the permitting process worked, Marks said. The department was on track to have the public notice ready so it could be published by June 27,she said.
The department was “scrambling” to get the draft permit ready by June 25, another email indicated. Employees had to work overtime over the weekend to get the permit completed, another email indicated.
One reason for the rush was that on several occasions, the department found mistakes and omissions in the model Big River developed and provided to the department about air quality at the proposed plant, according to emails.
Even though the process was rushed, Marks said the permitting process for Big River was not uncommon for a project of its size.
Marks also told Charles Moulton, the administrative law judge presiding at the hearing, that Big River asked the department when it would complete the draft permit.
“It wasn’t imposed by [Big River] on [the department],” Marks said. “We told them that we thought we could meet that date.”
Moulton asked what would have happened had the department not finished the permit by June 25.
Nothing would have happened, Marks said. The department would have told Big River that it would have to put it off for a week or until it could have been finished, she said.
In earlier testimony Wednesday, George Schewe, an expert witness for Nucor from Covington, Ky., questioned the accuracy of the model for the air-quality permit.
Big River attorneys pointed out to Schewe a few mistakes he had made in his air-quality model. Nucor attorneys argued the errors didn’t change the overall arguments Schewe made.
Before Schewe was questioned, Big River attorneys objected to his testimony, arguing that Nucor didn’t disclose that an air-quality model developed by Schewe would be presented at the hearing until only a few days ago. Nucor insisted that it had given notice.
Moulton overruled Big River’s objections and allowed Schewe to testify.
The hearing is expected to continue until at least Friday.
Business, Pages 25 on 02/20/2014