WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, participated in a full committee hearing and discussed progress on key West Virginia projects, including an update on Nucor steel mill’s progress through the permitting and federal review process, as well as the Corps’ work across the country.

HIGHLIGHTS:

UPDATE ON PROGRESS OF NUCOR STEEL MILL:

RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:

“About the Nucor permit applications, General Spellmon, can you provide me with an update with Nucor’s Section 404 permit, and also in particular the Section 106, the National Historic Preservation Act?”

LT. GEN. SCOTT SPELLMON, COMMANDING GENERAL, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS:

“Yes ma’am, first of all want to thank you for hosting the meeting with the Nucor executives and our leadership in your office. So since that meeting, several developments, the West Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer has concurred with our assessment that the five cultural properties, five cultural sites and phase A properties do in fact, qualify for consultation. So we've sent letters to the three tribes to initiate that consultation. They've asked us for some time, these are 800 page reports, so we'll get that scheduled. We did receive Nucor’s cultural assessment on the Phase B properties. These are the, if you recall, the properties closer to the Ohio River. Two additional sites there that will add to that consultation effort. And then we did receive the feedback that we requested on the Nibert site, ma’am that's the property just south with the laydown yard. That response included some case law that we were researching with our attorneys and those from Nucor and it will make a decision here shortly whether or not that is part of the project footprint.”

RANKING MEMBER CAPITO:

“Well I appreciate that. It sounds as though there's constant contact here with communication. And so appreciate that.”

ON WRDA 2022 PROVISIONS, PERMITTING: “General Spellmon, I championed a provision in WRDA 2022 that directs the Army Corps to submit to the committee on an annual basis a report on the timeframes for completing environmental reviews for water resource development projects. So we're talking a lot about permitting, we had a hearing last week on permitting. You’re obviously a critical part of that process…I was going to ask you the status of the implementation of the provision that you will report to us on an annual basis, but any comments and any words of wisdom you can give us as we'll try to work a bipartisan permitting reform process would be greatly appreciated.”

ON IMPORTANCE OF TRANSPARENCY IF CORPS PROJECTS ARE REPROGRAMMED, CHANGED: “I do think communication and transparency is the key here. I'm not naive enough to think that, well, we gave you all the money you're ever going to need and you need to do all these projects and life is never going to change there. I realize there's change orders. There's all kinds of things that you find in the process of different projects that maybe were unexpected or circumstances change or we can't find the workforce, whatever the issue is. But I do believe that the transparency with which you move forward on these decisions is absolutely critical.”