20070812 Ver 2_Winston Salem Journal_20090508

Dorney, John
From: Massengale, Susan [[e-mail]]
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Subject: Alcoa 401 Stories
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Winston Salem Journal
50 More Years?: Alcoa gets a key water-quality certificate for
federal license; state says situation has changed
Journal photo by David Rolfe
Alcoa Inc. wants a renewal of its 50-year federal license to operate hydroelectric plants along four reservoirs on the Yadkin River,
including High Rock Lake.
By Michael Hewlett
JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: May 8, 2009
Alcoa Inc. got one step closer yesterday to getting the new 50-year federal license it needs to operate hydroelectric plants along four
reservoirs on the Yadkin River, including High Rock Lake in Davidson County.
The N.C. Division of Water Quality issued a water-quality certificate to Alcoa, the largest U.S. producer of aluminum. It has attached
some conditions, including monitoring sediment at the public-access areas at Badin Lake for heavy metals, PCBs and poly-aromatic
hydrocarbons. Stanly County officials have raised concerns about contamination from the smelting plant that Alcoa operated in the town
of Badin until 2002.
"Obviously, the state took a long, hard and thorough look at this, and they granted the permit," said Kevin Lowery, a spokesman for
Alcoa. "We obviously agree with that decision."
It is technically the last step in Alcoa's efforts to get the federal license, a process that has gone on for the past several years. But
getting the federal license might not be that easy.
Just this week, the N.C. Senate approved by a 44-4 vote a bill that would create a state corporation that would acquire and control the
dams if North Carolina is able to get control away from Alcoa.
Gov. Bev Perdue has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to block Alcoa's request for a new license.
State officials have said that conditions have changed since Alcoa got its original federal license in 1958. Then Alcoa operated a
smelting plant in the town of Badin that employed nearly 1,000 people.
But the company closed the plant in 2002 and now sells the hydroelectric power on the open market, receiving about $44 million a year
in revenue.
"Gov. Perdue continues to believe that Alcoa's federal license should not be renewed," said Chrissy Pearson, a spokeswoman for
Perdue, in a statement. "Nearly all the jobs at the Alcoa facility no long exist, so the rationale for their original license no longer exists."
Alcoa officials have struck back hard, comparing the state's effort to nationalization of foreign corporate assets by Venezuela's socialist
president, Hugo Chavez.
"Part of the rationale is for the state to control the water," Lowery said. "The state does control the water. We don't take any water out,
and we don't put any water in. The rationale is somewhat moot."
Lowery said that the state's proposal would be expensive at a time when education is being cut and people are losing their jobs.
This is the second time that the N.C. Division of Water Quality has issued the permit. It issued a permit in November 2007 but had to
revoke it after the agency discovered that a required public notice was never published in The Stanly News & Press.
Lowery said that the decision is with FERC on whether to issue the federal license.
"It goes to FERC and we think that's the right spot for it, and we will be moving forward in that process," he said.
Associated Press
NC agency puts conditions on Alcoa certification
By EMERY P. DALESIO - ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Published. Thu, May. 07, 2009 05:51PM
Modified Thu, May. 07, 2009 07:27PM
BOOKMARK ?' ... ®E-Mail APrint
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RALEIGH, N.C. -- Alcoa Inc.'s bid for a new 50-year license for its four Yadkin River dams received a key state
certification Thursday, but with conditions that include a $240 million guarantee that the struggling aluminum producer will
follow through with improvements.
The state Division of Water Quality said the conditions are necessary to ensure that Alcoa will protect environmental
standards if it receives a new license allowing it to keep running the dams. Specifically, the company must improve the
dams' electricity-generating turbines to improve dissolved oxygen levels, adopt operating plans that account for low water
levels during periods of drought, and monitor sediment in Badin Lake for heavy metals and chemicals.
Alcoa also must provide a $240 million surety bond to make sure it will upgrade its electric-generating turbines to improve
dissolved oxygen levels in the discharged water, the agency said. The company was already planning to do that, said
Alcoa spokesman Kevin Lowery.
That condition came about because Alcoa lost $497 million in this year's first quarter. It was the Pittsburgh-based
company's second straight quarterly loss despite production cuts and plans to trim its global work force by 13 percent as
the economy undercut prices and product demand.
"We're making a determination that this particular project can occur and protect the uses of the water" if the conditions are
met, DWQ Director Coleen Sullins said.
The DWQ certification was required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is considering whether Alcoa
should be relicensed to operate the dams. The scientific review does not consider political and economic issues raised by
Gov. Beverly Perdue, Sullins said.
Last month, Perdue sought and received a last-minute chance to intervene in the federal commission's renewal. She said
the state backed Alcoa's 1958 federal license because the dams powered an aluminum smelter that once employed
nearly 1,000 people. But the plant closed years ago, the jobs are gone, and the corporation now sells the electricity the
dams generate for $44 million a year, the governor said.
The DWQ's certification "is a major, major milestone in this whole process," Lowery said.
Charlotte Observer
Alcoa wins water permit for Yadkin
By Bruce Henderson
bhenderson(cr?,charlotteob server. corn
Posted: Thursday, May. 07, 2009
N.C. officials today issued a water-quality certificate that Alcoa Power Generating Inc. needed to renew its
federal hydroelectric license on the Yadkin River.
Federal regulators have granted Gov. Bev Perdue the right to intervene in the license renewal. Perdue supports
state legislation, adopted by the N.C. Senate on Wednesday, that would create a state trust to take over Alcoa's
license.