20070812 Ver 2_Governor questions Yadkin permit_20090225

Governor questi ons Yadkin permit https://webimil.ncfmil.net/cp/ps/Mail/ViewMsgController?d=ncmail...
From: susan massengale [[e-mail]]
Date: Feb 25, 2009 11:30
To: "DWQ Clips"<[e-mail]>
Cc:
Subject: Governor questions Yadkin permit
Attachments: M susan.massengale.vcf (317 B)
From the Charlotte Observer
Governor questions Yadkin permit
As Alcoa seeks to renew hydroelectric license, Perdue 'troubled'
by company's control of river.
By Bruce Henderson
[e-mail]
Posted: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009
Gov. Bev Perdue expressed personal misgivings Tuesday about renewal of
Alcoa's hydroelectric license on the Yadkin River, for which the state
must issue a key permit.
The state agency that would issue the permit, meanwhile, told Alcoa its
application is incomplete and asked for more information. The agency
gave the company three weeks to respond, a deadline Alcoa said it could
meet.
Alcoa's four reservoirs on 38 miles of the Yadkin, east of Charlotte,
have become the focus of a contentious debate over water rights and
contamination. Officials of Stanly County, on the river's west bank, and
other advocates want to reclaim the 50-year hydro license now up for
renewal.
The federal agency that issues hydro licenses has never revoked one in
such a manner.
Perdue, after speaking in Mint Hill, told the Observer she's "very
troubled" by the corporation's control of the Yadkin. Alcoa's Stanly
County smelter has shut down, and the company now sells the electricity
it makes from the river on the open market.
"Its hard for me to understand how a company could own water rights to
an entire river basin," Perdue said.
The new governor's commerce secretary, Keith Crisco, is an Asheboro
business owner who until last month led the N.C. Water Rights Committee.
The group advocates that Alcoa's hydro license be placed in a public trust.
As lieutenant governor, Perdue had asked federal authorities for a
year's delay in awarding Alcoa a new license. But she noted Tuesday that
most decisions were made well before she took office as governor last
month, saying she "inherited a position I personally am not supportive of."
Perdue said she hopes her legal advisers can find grounds for her to
intervene in the process, but that she would follow the law.
1 of 2 1/20/2002 11:44 PM
The director of the N.C. Division of Water Quality, the permit-issuing
agency, said Perdue's staff has talked about Alcoa with the secretary's
staff at the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The division has until May to issue or deny a certification that Alcoa's
hydro operations won't harm the Yadkin. Its the last step needed before
federal authorities renewthe hydro license.
"We're having lots of conversations with lot of people about that
certificate," said water-quality director Coleen Sullins. No decisions
have been made, she said.
In a letter Tuesday to Alcoa, the division said the application would be
placed on hold until additional state analyses are completed at Badin
Lake, the site of Alcoa's shuttered smelter.
One analysis will compare fish tissue tainted by polychlorinated
biphenyls, or PCBs, with contaminated sediment taken from Badin Lake
near the smelter. Two weeks ago, state health authorities issued an
advisory for consumption of catfish and largemouth bass caught in the lake.
The letter also asked for more information on several other questions,
ranging from the handling of water samples to the known locations of
PCBs in Badin Lake, within three weeks.
"We should be able to accommodate that schedule," said Alcoa official
Gene Ellis. He said the questions came as no surprise because they arose
in public or written comments filed with the state agency.
E-mail correspondence to and from this address may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and
may be disclosed to third parties.
DENR.DWQ.CLIPS mailing list
DENR.DWQ.CLI [e-mail]
2 of 2 1/20/2002 11:44 PM