20070812 Ver 2_Alcoa, speakers at odds over plans for Yadkin River's future_20090116

Alcoa, speakers at odds over plans for Yadkin River's future
Subject: Alcoa, speakers at odds over plans for Yadkin River's future
From: susan massengale <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:38:35 -0500
To: DWQ Clips <[e-mail]>
From the Salisbury Post
Alcoa, speakers at odds over plans for Yadkin River's future
By Mark Wineka <mailto:[e-mail]>
[e-mail]
ALBEMARLE - An official with Alcoa Power Generating Inc. said Thursday night the
company is dedicated to protecting the public health and environment of Stanly
County and will never abandon its commitment to address any contamination related to
its almost century-long aluminum smelting operation in Badin.
Gene Ellis, licensing and property manager for APGI, said on the separate issue of
water being discharged from its dams on the Yadkin River, the company is confident
the hydroelectric project is meeting state water quality standards.
Meanwhile, a parade of other speakers Thursday cited what they believe are serious
water quality problems in the project and called on the state to either deny or
delay a Section 401 certification.
The certification from the N.C. Division of Water Quality is needed before Alcoa's
federal license for the project can be renewed. Officials with the Division of Water
Quality held the public hearing Thursday night, and a standing-room-only crowd
packed into the meeting room of the Stanly County Board of Commissioners.
The state agency will keep the public comment period open until Feb. 13 and is
supposed to render a decision by March 16.
Dr. John H. Rogers Jr., an environmental toxicologist from Clemson University, said
his research shows numerous and ongoing water quality violations associated with
dissolved oxygen levels, nutrients and sedimentation, among other things.
"The relicensing of this project should be denied in my opinion," Rogers said,
saying there are additional studies on fish and toxic contamination that must be
analyzed.
In addition to the water quality debate, Alcoa's years-long federal relicensing
process has stirred a movement calling for the state to take over the project by
placing it in a public trust.
This proposal would pay Alcoa a sum of money for its investment over the years but
otherwise have the state and its taxpayers reap the benefits of selling the power.
This argument, promoted strongly by Stanly County officials and a group called the
N.C. Water Rights Committee, says the water rights given to Alcoa under the
original license in 1958 occurred with the understanding that Alcoa was using the
project to provide power for its smelter and creating hundreds of jobs.
Now that the smelter is shut down and the jobs are gone, the state's residents
should not consent to giving away control or economic benefits of the project for
another 40 or 50 years, the water rights advocates have said. That point was
reiterated several times Thursday.
Dr. Steve Scroggins, a Winston-Salem resident and visiting professor of economics at
Virginia Tech, compared Alcoa to a tenant who is living on the project in expiration
of his lease.
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Alcoa, speakers at odds over plans for Yadkin River's future
As with any other landlord, he argued, the state should rent out the project to the
highest bidder, and he suggested that the rental fee be $35 million or more. There's
more at stake than water quality, Scroggins said.
"This is not Alcoa's money," he added. "It's our money, and we need it."
Separately, the Environmental Review Commission is studying the impacts of granting
Alcoa another license, and its report is due Feb. 1.
In Alcoa's application documents, the company says the annual value of the power
produced by the project is $43.6 million, while the company has annual operating
costs of $28.3 million. Its estimated annual profit, according to the company's
numbers, is $8.4 million.
Relicensing opponents of Alcoa say the company's smelting process led to thousands
of tons of waste each year that were buried at various sites in Stanly County. Ellis
said the company has been working with government environmental officials for 20
years in remediation of the sites.
Those issues are being addressed separately by the N.C. Department of Environment
and Natural Resources, Ellis said, stressing again that water quality has not been
affected.
Over the past six years, Ellis said, Alcoa's independent consultants, studies and
state data have all shown, the project meets North Carolina water quality standards.
The negotiated Relicensing Settlement Agreement among 23 stakeholders also will
increase dissolved oxygen levels in the waters, Ellis said, adding that some steps
already taken have increased levels.
A sampling of water discharged from the Narrows Dam, as requested by the state,
showed in September 2008 that the operation is not discharging polluted water, Ellis
said.
Of some 100 substances tested for, none are in violation of water quality standards,
he said. In fact, most substances tested for were not detected in the water, Ellis
added.
Tom Griffin, an attorney for Stanly County, disagreed and said there are
contaminants in the water and that dissolved oxygen levels are a frequent and
common problem that must be investigated more thoroughly.
"We know today we can't certify," Griffin told the Water Quality representatives.
"Make your decision on as full plate of information."
Representatives of the city of Salisbury attended the hearing but did not speak.
They met earlier with Stanly County officials.
Salisbury has strongly challenged Alcoa during the relicensing on grounds that
sediment caused by the High Rock Dam harms the city's Yadkin River intake and
causes flooding that threatens the raw water pump station and Grants Creek
wastewater treatment plant.
Tom Lynch of Salisbury said the sediment issue at the city's intake costs him as a
taxpayer.
Lynch, who is on the Badin Shores Resort board, said he also has a problem with the
fluctuating level of Badin Lake and could better accept it if Alcoa still employed
hundreds of people.
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