Big River Steel seeks suit dismissal

An attorney for Big River Steel, which is building a $1.3 billion steel mill near Osceola, told U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes on Friday that a lawsuit against the firm should be dismissed because the legal points in the case already have been decided.

Nucor Corp., which owns two other nearby steel mills in Mississippi County, sued Big River Steel in August in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, seeking to stop construction of the plant.

In April, the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission approved the plant's air quality permit. The commission approved a ruling in March by Administrative Law Judge Charles Moulton, who affirmed the air permit in a 71-page decision.

"[Moulton] rejected every claim [by Nucor] and it was upheld by the commission," Mark Delaquil, an attorney representing Big River Steel, told Holmes.

Since then, Nucor has filed several lawsuits in state and federal courts seeking to overturn the state commission's decision, Delaquil said.

Pulaski County Judge Mackie Pierce already has dismissed one case Nucor filed against the commission in Pulaski County Circuit Court, said Martin Booher, another attorney representing Big River Steel, in an interview after the hearing.

Nucor also has an appeal of the commission's decision before the Arkansas Court of Appeals, said David Taggart, who represents Nucor.

Nucor also has brought a complaint against the federal Environmental Protection Agency, Booher said.

The lawsuit before Holmes is almost identical to Nucor's case before the commission, an effort to relitigate the case in federal court, Booher said in Big River Steel's motion to dismiss.

Taggart said the lawsuit shouldn't be dismissed.

Nucor believes that Arkansas' air permit issued to Big River Steel didn't comply with the federal Clean Air Act, and therefore Nucor had the right to sue in federal court, Taggart said in an interview after the hearing.

Nucor has alleged that the state's permitting process was deficient, Taggart said.

"[Big River Steel's] position is that as long as [the document] has 'permit' at the top of it, it doesn't matter what's in it or what's not in it," Taggart said. "We say that just can't be the law."

Holmes didn't indicate when he will rule on the motion to dismiss the case.

Construction on the plant near Osceola is on schedule, Booher said. A sign at the work site indicates the plant should begin operation in a little more than 14 months, Booher said.

The plant is expected to employ about 525 workers when it opens in spring 2016, with an average income of $75,000 a year when potential bonuses are included. About 2,000 construction workers are scheduled to build the plant.

Business on 01/17/2015

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