Associated Press Writer
By EMERY P. DALESIO
Thursday, May 07, 2009
NC agency puts conditions on Alcoa certification
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.
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