Alcoa Thinks It Is Above State's Fish Consumption Advisory
The way Alcoa reacts in efforts to continue its monopoly of water rights for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project makes you think it opposes everyone in state government who oversees it. First it attacked Sen. Fletcher L. Hartsell, Jr. (R-Cabarrus) for sponsoring the creation of a Yadkin River Trust to handle the Project, even though federal law provides fair compensation to Alcoa in the transition. Now its latest opponent is none other than the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, "the largest agency in state government, responsible for ensuring the health, safety and well being of all North Carolinians, providing the human service needs for fragile populations like the mentally ill, deaf, blind and developmentally disabled, and helping poor North Carolinians achieve economic independence." (http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/aboutdhhs/index.htm)
Apparently Alcoa thinks it can do a better job of protecting the public than the 19,000-plus employees of DHHS, if you read its statement published in the Stanly News and Press April 13. (http://www.thesnaponline.com/local/local_story_103092909.html) It referred to the DHHS release on Feb. 11 about finding elevated PCBs in fish at Badin Lake, which is part of the Project that Alcoa operates, and ordering a fish consumption advisory for pregnant women, nursing women and children under age 15 as a result, as PCBs are probable human carcinogens.
The article quotes Alcoa saying the following: "While APGI respects the Department of Health's duty and desire to protect public health and inform the public of risks, it has appealed the advisory because the State changed its stated evaluation criteria after the study was complete and held Badin Lake to a different standard than other lakes and rivers in North Carolina. Specifically, the State has never before issued a fish advisory based on the findings in a single fish with slightly elevated levels, but that's exactly what it did with largemouth bass in Badin Lake."
Actually, the DHHS release specifically stated that "Elevated levels of PCBs have been found in large mouth bass and catfish in Badin Lake." (http://www.dhhs.state.nc.us/pressrel/2009/2009-2-11-pcbfish.htm) Out of 30 fish that were tested, there were elevated levels of PCBs in one largemouth bass and three catfish. Alcoa is discounting additional contaminated fish is its discussion and therefore changing the facts of the findings to make its argument.
Alcoa's "respect" for the mission of the DHHS does not square either with the rest of the statement: "And, the State has monitored similar levels of chemicals or contamination in fish tissue caught in other waterways in North Carolina, but has not issued a fish advisory in those instances. The failure to use consistent evaluation criteria calls into question the confidence the public will place in fish advisories issued by the State." Such a claim is inflammatory and without merit in any facts available, and we challenge Alcoa officials to prove this definitively.
The fact is the DHHS has found PCBs in several other sites in North Carolina in the past, particularly Wake County, and have issued similar fish consumption advisories for them (http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/fish/current.html). Alcoa has not received any different treatment than the rest of the state on this matter.
It is interesting that Alcoa's statement came two full months after the DHHS announcement. Why was there a delay in response? Is the multinational firm worried that this advisory's publicity undermines its claims to be a responsible tenant for the Project in the past, and that it implies Alcoa's promise for better water quality if it controls the Project over the next 50 years is hollow?
One thing is sure: If Alcoa had spent as much time and effort cleaning up contamination associated with its activities at the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project as it did criticizing anyone who spoke against it, the company might not have to be defending itself against a fish consumption advisory, not to mention more public pressure to respect the water rights of all North Carolinians.
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