A state agency has filed a lawsuit in Wake County asking a judge to rule that the navigable portions of the Yadkin River bed are the property of North Carolina and not the company that operates a string of hydroelectric dams along the waterway.
The N.C. Department of Administration is seeking the judgment against Alcoa Power Generating, which is currently pursuing a federal relicensing to continue operating the dams for up to 50 years.
Alcoa has been operating the four dams — including the one at High Rock Lake — since 1958. They used to power a now-defunct smelting plant in Badin that employed thousands of people.
State officials argue those dams rest, in part, on land owned by North Carolina.
“The Yadkin River is a North Carolina river,” said Gov. Pat McCrory said in a press release.