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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.
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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.
■ Michael Hewlett can be reached at 727-7326 or at mhewlett@wsjournal.com.
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