Nucor Files Lawsuit To Stop Big River Steel (UPDATED)

The Associated Press reports that North Carolina-based Nucor Steel has filed a federal lawsuit to halt the $1.3 billion Big River Steel superproject in Northeast Arkansas.

Nucor Steel says in the 96-page filing that Big River Steel would violate the federal Clean Air Act. Nucor has objected throughout the permitting process with state environmental officials that once Big River Steel comes online it would harm the air quality in the region.

Nucor alleges in the suit that the emissions from the proposed Big River Steel mill would negatively impact the health and productivity of Nucor employees.

“Nucor has a practical, economic interest in maintaining a healthy, contented and motivated workforce as well as a pool of healthy potential employees having healthy employees and a healthy potential workforce pool, minimizes the amount of time Nucor employees miss at work, due to illness thus preventing scheduling issues, missed shifts, sick leave and other losses,” the lawsuit states.

No trial date has been set and the case has been assigned to Chief District Judge Leon Holmes.

As of Tuesday, Big River Steel has not responded to the lawsuit, which has been assigned to federal district court in Jonesboro.

Early construction on the Big River Steel factory has already begun.

At the end of June, financing for the superproject closed allowing the deal to move forward. At that time, Nucor officials raised the specter of litigation to continue fighting the plant.

“Nucor Steel-Arkansas and Nucor-Yamato Steel continue to believe that the air permit issued to Big River Steel LLC does not meet the requirements of applicable state and federal law, and that permitting for the Big River facility will be detrimental to the existing steelmaking operations in Mississippi County. Given these circumstances, we will continue to challenge the permit’s issuance and look forward to a final disposition of this matter.

“One of the biggest concerns is that the emissions limits proposed by Big River Steel are substantially below levels that other EAF operators have found to be achievable using the same technology, raising serious questions as to whether Big River Steel will be able to meet these emissions limits. If Big River Steel fails to meet these aggressive limits, Osceola and the surrounding northeast Arkansas area will violate National Ambient Air Quality Standards for fine particulate matter. Violating this standard would not only affect their operations, but would effectively prohibit any further industrial development or expansion of existing facilities from occurring in the region,” said Nucor spokesperson Katherine Miller in a statement last month.