WHITLEY COUNTY, INDIANA — JUNE 23, 2000 — Steel Dynamics, Inc. (NASDAQ: STLD)
today announced that it has received the long-awaited ruling from the
Environmental Appeals Board in Washington, D.C. concerning the appeal by
project opponents of SDI’s air permit for construction of its new
structural mill facility to be built in Whitley County, Indiana.
In its 112-page ruling, the Appeals Board denied review of the clear
majority of issues raised by the project opponents but found some
procedural flaws in the Indiana Department of Environmental Management’s
(IDEM’s) handling of three issues, which it ordered sent back for
further consideration and elaboration by IDEM. As such, by operation of
federal law, SDI’s air permit will not yet be able to become effective,
and construction of its Whitley County structural mill will not be able
to commence until the three remanded issues have been finally resolved.
Richard Teets, Vice President and General Manager of SDI’s Structural
Steel Division, commenting upon the ruling, stated: “Overall, we are
pleased that the Environmental Appeals Board has at last issued its
ruling on these August 1999 appeals. And we are particularly gratified
that of the approximately 28 substantive and procedural issues raised
jointly by the United Association of Plumbers & Steamfitters, Local
Union 166 and by the Citizens Organized Watch group, the Appeals Board
found 25 of them to be without merit, and of the 11 issues raised
separately by the Citizens Organized Watch group, all 11 were found to
be without merit. We are obviously disappointed, however, that the
Appeals Board has ordered IDEM to reconsider and better document the
record regarding the three remanded issues, for that will necessitate
some further delay. But we do believe that these issues will be able to
be resolved cooperatively to IDEM’s and to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s satisfaction. The bottom line is that this
structural mill project is going to get built.”
In its ruling, the Appeals Board actually focused its limited
criticism upon the process used by IDEM, holding in essence, that IDEM
should add more information to the record in support of its permit
decision on the three remanded issues. Thus, the Environmental Appeals
Board is not saying that the permit must be cast in any different
manner, substantively, than when IDEM issued it one year ago.
Mr. Teets further commented that Company officials and its legal
counsel are currently reviewing the lengthy opinion in detail and will
be formulating their approach during the next week or so regarding how
to get the remaining issues resolved. “We have no way of predicting, at
this time, how long it will be before we can at last begin
construction. That will depend upon how quickly IDEM and EPA will be
prepared to act this time around. We think that the Appeal Board’s
statement in the ruling that it does not believe that further briefing
would be helpful is an encouraging sign that the Agency is prepared to
act without unnecessary delay. We do believe that the message has now
been delivered to the opponents of this project, loud and clear, that
their apparent objective to discourage SDI from persevering and to kill
the project through the administrative process has failed. We hope that
our opponents will recognize this. If their actions continue to be
motivated by harassment and hidden agendas rather than sincere
environmental concerns, we cannot prevent that, but we will see the
process through and now feel even more confident that we will prevail.”
The new mill will produce structural steel products. The cost of the
project will be approximately $300 million and, when in full operation,
is expected to employ approximately 300 people paying average salaries
in excess of $50,000.
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