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March 18, 2009

Commissioners Reiterate Position And Guiding Principals For Yadkin Hydro Project

STANLY COUNTY, N.C. - The Stanly County Board of Commissioners is announcing that the duties of creating a strong economy with good-paying jobs and protecting public health are the guiding principles and reasons why the board opposes the efforts of Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (APGI) to retain its control for another 50 years of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, which includes four reservoirs and dams. Commissioners believe the county will have serious long-term economic and environmental problems if APGI continues to monopolize exclusive water rights in the county for the Yadkin River, and they cite the following reasons why:

The county will be better off in the long run with the proposed State Trust managing and owning the Project rather than what APGI offers. The concept, created by the N.C. Water Rights Coalition, calls for establishing a Trust with respect to owning and managing the Project on behalf of the state's residents. In return, it would provide the state with multiple advantages connected to the Project that APGI has not promised in its application, including millions in future state revenues. The full text of the State Trust Concept can be accessed at the N.C. Water Rights Web site at www.ncwaterrights.org/Info/Info005.aspx.

This process is allowed because under APGI's original 50-year agreement with the federal government in 1957, the government has the right to reclaim the water and the hydroelectricity generated by it at the Yadkin River at a federally mandated price which APGI recognizes. This recapture is not about private property or property rights, as APGI sometimes erroneously claims. APGI can retain the land it owns around the Project, but the water and the dams are part of a contractual agreement that is being decided during the federal licensing process. The Federal Power Act of 1920 intended for ownership of water resources to revert to the people.

The State Trust Concept allows Stanly County and the people of our region and state a way to meet that goal and keep its own water and hydroelectricity. It will allow the county to offer inexpensive energy for businesses to use if they establish operations or relocate in Stanly, rather than sell it all on the electrical grid, as APGI currently does.
APGI has failed to invest back into the county with jobs. If the firm truly is as committed to the well-being of Stanly County residents as it claims, it would not have shut its smelter in 2002 and prefer to build new operations overseas, such as in Iceland. It also would have addressed the environmental contamination associated with the smelter's operations which APGI admits exist but will not say exactly where, when or how they will be handled.

Instead, APGI has shown signs that it only wants to keep operating the dams and their free source of power - the waters of the Yadkin that speed their turbines - in order to earn tens of millions annually with little investment given back to Stanly County in return. If that money is not enough for them, APGI also has the right if they secure a federal 50-year license to sell ownership of the Project for profit to a foreign entity, and that ownership would remain in effect for the duration of the license, with no say allowed by the county or the state.
APGI holds a monopoly on Stanly's water without any regulation by the state. This fight for water rights in Stanly is a statewide issue. Gov. Bev Perdue indicated that herself with her recent announcement that she is "very troubled" by Alcoa's control of hydroelectricity in the Yadkin River. The Stanly Board of Commissioners supports the governor's position.

The State Utilities Commission cannot regualte APGI as it is able to do with other users of hydropwer. State water regulations do not apply evenly to APGI in other respects either. In fact, should Alcoa receive the 50-year license under the application it submitted, it will be allowed a larger allotment of water to use in its operations than currently permitted, while other counties south of Stanly remain under drought restrictions.

To be fair to our neighboring counties as well as the State of North Carolina, there should be better stewardship of our water in the Yadkin River. If we the citizens control the Project rather than APGI, there will be more accountability, transparency and better combination of resources in our area. That approach will in turn make our state and region a much more economically attractive county.
Independent studies have shown major environmental problems associated with APGI's operations at the Project. For APGI to obtain another 50-year federal license for the Project, it first must earn a required 401 Water Quality Certification from the N.C. Division of Water Quality (DWQ). While a final decision from this review is expected prior to May 9, the state has issued a Fish Consumption Advisory warning pregnant and expectant mothers and children under 15 to avoid eating catfish and largemouth bass from Badin Lake. The state announced a study Feb. 11 finding high levels of PCBs in fish from the lake, whose Narrows Dam is part of the Project.

Two fish caught in Badin Lake's northwestern arm showed PCBs in potentially unsafe levels, as did one from the southwestern region, closer to Alcoa's former plant at the Lake. While it acknowledged that it is likely responsible for PCB-tainted lake sediment near its former smelter, Alcoa has suggested the impacts to fish came from an upstream source instead. The study did not trace the source of the PCBs. Stanly County Commissioners have urged the state to study Badin Lake carefully for the source before APGI can receive its certification, as they feel it to be connected with APGI's years of environmental neglect with the Project.

Because of all these economic and environmental issues, Stanly County Commissioners remain firmly against APGI's efforts for another 50-year license for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project.

Quotes: "The conditions we face in Stanly County now are drastically different than when the last licensing for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project occurred more than 50 year ago," said Stanly County Commissioner Lindsey Dunevant. "Anybody with a long-term, compelling interest in seeing Stanly County successful economically and environmentally for the future - and that includes every citizen of North Carolina - ought to favor our approach with the State Trust Concept over APGI's proposal to generate cash for its corporate needs from the Yadkin River Project. To do otherwise is to favor greed and exploitation by a monopoly of our publicly-owned natural resources, and deny the State the opportunity to use our own resources to help our citizens in these difficult economic times."

About This Effort: Alcoa, the world's leading producer of primary aluminum, secured a federal hydroelectric license in 1958 for the Yadkin Project on the Yadkin River in Stanly, Davidson, Montgomery and Rowan Counties in the Central Piedmont. In return, Alcoa promised to maintain aluminum manufacturing jobs for the region for years to come. Alcoa has now disappeared as a major employer in the region and shut down its manufacturing plant, but it wants to continue reaping-for another 50 years-the benefits of the Yadkin River after its license expired in April of 2008. Alcoa discharged hazardous pollutants into North Carolina air and waterways for decades while harvesting immense profits from the Yadkin River and its smelting operations, but has yet to finish cleaning up that contamination. It has filed an application with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to obtain another 50-year license. If Alcoa is successful, one of North Carolina's most valuable water resources will be used to maximize Alcoa's profits, instead of being used to benefit the people of North Carolina, who should be able to use their own natural resources to assure they enjoy the affordable electricity, local economic development, and clean, adequate drinking water available from alternative ownership of the Yadkin River Project.

Patty Briguglio
MMI Associates, Inc.
919-233-6600
patty@mmimarketing.com
PR Firms Raleigh, NC

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