Clearing Misconceptions About the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project

Given the recent flurry of activity surrounding the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, the N.C. Water Rights Coalition wants the citizens of North Carolina to know the truth and not rumors or misinformation about where things stand with the Project. So here is a summary of statements you may have heard or read regarding the project that are in fact flat out wrong, with the reasons why given for each of them:

  • The N.C. Division of Water Quality's approval of a 401 Water Quality Certification to Alcoa means that the firm is ready to receive from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission a quick approval for another 50-year license to monopolize control of the Project and its four hydroelectric powerhouses, dams and reservoirs. - That may be how Alcoa sees it, but there are other issues the FERC must consider. Gov. Bev Perdue has requested that the FERC deny Alcoa the license in favor of letting Congress allow the state to establish a Yadkin River Trust to oversee the Project instead. Under the law, the FERC can recommend recapture by the Federal Government of the Project license to Congress, for subsequent transfer to the State of North Carolina, as one option. (We describe this process more thoroughly in the third bullet.) The governor's position has received support from six members of the state's congressional delegation, who have written the FERC to request that the commission allot a fair amount of time to hear the state's case. Also bolstering Gov. Perdue's action is the General Assembly, where members of the state Senate overwhelmingly voted for establishing a Yadkin River Trust and the state House appears ready to follow suit.
  • The N.C. Division of Water Quality's approval of Alcoa means that the firm has been a good steward of the Project. - Anyone who has seen the conditions placed on Alcoa to receive the certificate will realize it has done a clearly insufficient job of ensuring water quality on the Yadkin River over the last 50 years. The $240 surety bond Alcoa must post to guarantee that financial resources are available to improve dissolved oxygen levels in the discharges of the hydroelectric turbine system is unprecedented. It occurred because the state wants to ensure that Alcoa can actually pay what it promises to do in improvements, which ought to tell you something about the state's confidence in the company's financial stability. Alcoa also should be embarrassed about the fact it has dangerous PCBs in Badin Lake, one of its reservoirs, which has prompted a consumption advisory from the state for anyone who wants to eat its fish. Catch a fish from Badin and offer it to an Alcoa official to eat, since they have protested the state's consumption advisory. Bet they will not take even a whiff of it.
  • If the FERC rejects Alcoa's licensing application, then hydroelectric operations at the Project must stop automatically. - Under Section 15 of the Federal Power Act, the Project will continue to operate under an annual (yearly) license while the FERC considers any applications and also to allow for "The orderly transfer of a project to: (i) The United States, if takeover is elected (by the federal government); or (ii) A new licensee, if a new power or nonpower license is issued to that licensee." So, a productive hydroelectric unit will continue to operate, even if a new long-term license is not issued to the current licensee. This makes sense because the law also provides for Congress to consider, for up to two years, whether to take over a project if the FERC itself recommends that action. This timing applies even if the current license of the project has already expired, as in the case with the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project.
  • The FERC can recommend to Congress that a state or municipal body take over a hydroelectric project, with compensation. - Actually, under its regulations, if the FERC decides not to renew a hydroelectric project to a particular applicant, it can re-open the licensing process and invite new competition for the project; recommend recapture to Congress, with the intent that Congress should decide how the Project be operated; or decide that no project license should issue and require that the presently effective Project license be surrendered. Also, the FERC can recommend recapture to Congress and defer a decision on pending applications. Should Congress fail to take the steps necessary to take over the project within two years after the FERC recommendation, the FERC could then go ahead and make a decision on the pending applications. In other words, the recapture provision is not limited to recapture by a state or municipal body. The law provides that other entities, including the federal government or other non-governmental entities if Congress specifies, can have a Congressionally-provided opportunity to secure an exclusive license to operate an existing Project, under the current federal law.

Of course, we of the N.C. Water Rights Coalition believe that the proposed Yadkin River Trust is the best option we have seen so far of assuring residents of our state the best oversight of water levels, water quality and job opportunities associated with the Project. It certainly is better than what Alcoa has done with the Project the past 50 years, as well as what it promises to do the next 50 years - if in fact Alcoa does not sell the federal license for profit to another company, even a foreign entity such as a business based in China.

But as long as people put their interests above that of us North Carolinians for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, it appears likely there will be more rumors and misinformation we will have to correct. That is no problem to us, for we know the truth, and the truth is Alcoa cares more about its bottom line than a strong economic and environmental future for the Project.

|Home|