A federal lawsuit has been filed to block a new steel mill from opening in Osceola. The Blytheville Courier News reports Nucor Steel filed a lawsuit in Jonesboro yesterday against Big River Steel. In the suit, Nucor says Big River Steel violated the federal Clean Air Act. Nucor says pollutants from Big River Steel would cause harm to the productivity of its workers. Nucor operates two steel mills outside of Blytheville. Big River Steel is planning a $1.3 billion steel mill south of Osceola. Despite objections during Big River's approval process, an air quality permit for the mill was approved by state officials in April. Big River Steel founder John Correnti tells the Associated Press that the lawsuit is frivolous.
Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.