20070812 Ver 2_Falls Lake compromise_20090805

Dorney, John
From: Massengale, Susan [[e-mail]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 9:28 AM
To: [e-mail]
Subject: 2 stories: Falls Lake/Alcoa-Yadkin
Attachments: ATT00001.c
Falls Lake compromise sets 2011, deadline
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RALEIGH -- A bill setting a Jan. 15, 2011, deadline for draft regulations to clean and protect Falls Lake won
approval by the state Senate's environment committee Tuesday.
The bill also provides for temporary regulations to take effect on the same date, as well as strengthened erosion-
control measures taking effect Dec. 1, 2009.
Wake County Sen. Josh Stein said the much-revised bill, H1099, is a "win-win" proposition, giving the state
Division of Water Quality the extra time it wanted while providing interim protection for the lake that provides
435,000 Wake County residents with drinking water.
The bill is due for a hearing by the Senate finance committee before going to the floor for a vote. Although an
earlier version passed the state House in May, revisions mean that a final form must be settled in conference and
approved by both houses. Stein said both Durham and Raleigh "signed off' on the revised bill.
Staff writer Jim Wise
From Betts Blog
Will Yadkin River Trust get another chance?
I missed last week's session of the House Water Resources and Infrastructure Committee, when the panel voted against
a motion on a bill to create a Yadkin River Trust that might eventually purchase and operate Alcoa Power Generating's
hydroelectric plants on the Yadkin River. Alcoa is seeking a federal license to continue operating the plants, but it has
lost some support because it no longer has a large workforce at its Badin plant, a factor that helped the company get a
50-year federal license to operate the project back in the 1950s.
Now the Perdue administration opposes the license at a time when the company is near the end of a long process to
renew the license, and a bipartisan coalition of legislators is pushing the Yadkin River Trust bill.
The Senate passed the bill overwhelmingly earlier this session, but the bill's fate is uncertain in the closing days of this
legislature. But Committee Chairman Cullie Tarleton, D-Watauga, has scheduled another committee session tomorrow
at noon in Room 1228 of the Legislative Building to consider SB 967.
Last week Alcoa was happy with the result when the committee voted 8-6 against moving forward on the bill.
"We applaud the committee for standing up for private property rights and voting against an unprecedented
government takeover that could have cost North Carolina $500 million or more," said Gene Ellis, a spokesperson for
Alcoa. "We remain eager for a new license and look forward to implementing the many positive benefits included in the
Relicensing Settlement Agreement."
There's more about the company's view of this bill at http://yadkinproject.blogspot.com/
But this week, proponents of the Yadkin River Trust were working to undermine Alcoa with a report associating toxic
PCB levels in fish in Badin Lake with the Alcoa operations at Badin. The N.C. Water Rights Committee's public relations
firm, MMIMarketing, released the following about the study.
"John H. Rodgers, Jr., Ph.D., a renowned water quality expert with Clemson University, has released a new study that
indicates there is a relationship between the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) used at Alcoa's Badin Works facility on the
Yadkin River and the PCBs found in the fish and sediments in Badin Lake, a 5,300-acre reservoir that empties into the
Yadkin through the Narrows Dam. This conclusion adds further evidence that Alcoa is the source of the PCB
contamination found in the lake earlier this year. It is also yet another example of how Alcoa has been a poor steward of
the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, which includes four dams and powerhouses along a 38-mile stretch of the Yadkin River
at High Rock, Tuckertown, Narrows and Falls Reservoirs in Davie, Davidson, Rowan, Montgomery and Stanly counties.
"Alcoa, a multinational firm, has applied for a new 50-year license from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(FERC) to control, govern and sustain ownership of water flowing from the Yadkin River and continue overseeing its
monopoly of hydropower generated by the Project. Opponents of Alcoa's stewardship of the Project, including the Stanly
County Board of Commissioners, have cited the firm's poor environmental record as a key reason for denying the
relicensing. As Badin Lake serves as the primary source of drinking water for Stanly County, a location for fishing and
swimming, and an economic driver for the entire Uwharrie Lakes Region/N.C. Central Park and the State of North
Carolina, this new link tying the PCBs in fish and sediment in the lake with Alcoa's own operations strengthens that
concern.
"Using 30 fish samples collected Feb. 11 and seven sediment samples collected April 2, Dr. Rodgers compared samples
with information on the PCBs used at the Alcoa Badin Works Facility provided by the N.C. Division of Waste Management
this year. As PCBs are a family of industrial chlorinated chemical compounds that include 209 possible forms, or
"congeners," he and Dr. Matt Huddleston analyzed the PCB congeners and concentrations in the fish tissue with those in
sediment samples from the southwest arm of Badin Lake (near the Alcoa facility), the northwest arm and the northeast
arm. Based on their analysis, they reached the following conclusions:
"- There is a relationship between PCB congeners in sediments from the southwest arm of Badin Lake and PCBs in fish
from the lake.
- Congeners detected in the fish tissue provided further evidence of sediments as a source of PCBs.
- PCB congeners detected in sediments from the southwest arm of the lake (near the Alcoa facility) have concentrations
significantly greater (on the order of 10 to 100 times greater) than sediments from other parts of the lake.
- PCBS congeners in sediments from the southwest arm co-occur more frequently with congeners detected in fish samples
throughout the lake than do congeners in sediments from other parts of the lake.
- Fish sampled from the southwest arm of the lake were consistently more contaminated by PCBs than fish collected from
other parts of the lake."
There's more. Presumably it will be up on the Web at some point but I didn't see it at www.ncwaterrights.org.
Susan Massengale
Public Information Officer
DENR- Division of Water Quality
1617 MSC, Raleigh, NC 27699-1617
[phone]; fax [phone]
Please note: my e-mail address has changed to susan.nlassengale((u?ncdenr.gov
E-mcid correspondence to and fi-orn this address nw.V he subject to the
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