IUKA — A North Carolina group plans a meeting Saturday in Iuka to call on local residents to press state regulators to hold a hearing on what it believes is health risks connected to a silicon metal plant under construction in Tishomingo County.
Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, located in Graham, North Carolina, told WTVA-TV in Tupelo that the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality issued the permit for construction to Mississippi Silicon before receiving final air quality analysis.
BREDL will hold the meeting Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Homestead Restaurant in Iuka.
The group said the report includes information on polluting air emissions coming from submerged arc furnaces that burn coal, wood, and quartz.
Rima Holdings USA Inc. owns 80 percent of Mississippi Silicon. It’s an affiliate of Rima Industrial SA in Brazil, a metals and casting firm. The other 20 percent is owned by Clean Tech I LLC, a domestic investor group led by John Correnti, who led the effort to build the steel mill in Columbus that is now Severstal.
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