By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
BADIN – Alcoa announced Tuesday that it’s restarting its attempt to get a key water quality certification for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project.
Alcoa Power Generating Inc. has filed a motion for an order dismissing without prejudice its appeal of the state’s revocation of its 401 water quality certificate.
If the court grants the motion, Alcoa says it will apply for a new one in an effort to speed up a regulatory process delayed by legal issues for more than three years.
“We just see it as the most time-efficient way to move forward and get beyond the stalemate that we’re embedded in,” said Kevin Anton, Alcoa’s chief sustainability officer. “If we go and file a new 401 application, it actually becomes a time-bound process, so we know that state has to act on that within a year.”
Alcoa needs the water quality certificate to gain federal approval to operate four dams on the Yadkin River for up to 50 more years. The Federal Energy Regulation Commission recommended that Alcoa be issued a new long-term license in 2008.
The N.C. Division of Water Quality initially approved Alcoa’s plans in May 2009, on condition that the company make a $240 million guarantee it will follow through on promises to upgrade the dams and improve water quality.
The state regulation agency revoked its approval in December 2011. They claimed that Alcoa intentionally withheld information in its application, based on internal company emails in which Alcoa officials expressed concern that downstream waters may not meet state standards.
Alcoa has said it fully intended to meet those requirements and didn’t misrepresent any data. A new application wouldn’t include this dispute.
“It’s time for a fresh start,” Anton said in a press release. “While we strongly believe that our original water quality certificate was correctly issued and wrongly revoked, we want to file a new request that clearly reconfirms our commitment to meeting North Carolina water quality standards.”
Anton told the Post that a new application would be very similar to the old one and likely include the same requirements.
“The advantage we have now is we’ve got several years of operating data on the dissolved oxygen enhancement equipment, so we can show that the technology is working,” Anton said.
In the press release, Alcoa says it has regularly monitored dissolved oxygen levels – a key indicator of water quality – in the tailwaters below its dams. The monitoring data indicates that water quality at the Yadkin Project has improved dramatically since Alcoa invested more than $5 million in turbine upgrades and other enhancements designed to increase the amount of oxygen in the water.
At Narrows Dam, for example, the level of dissolved oxygen below the dam meets one state water quality standard 100 percent of the time and another 99 percent of the time. That represents a 115 percent improvement since additional technology was installed at Narrows in 2007 and 2008, according to the press release.
Lindsey Dunevant, chairman of the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, said the improvements are part of routine maintenance that Alcoa should have been doing all along.
“I think it points out that they only do something whenever they get caught with their hand in the cookie jar,” he said.
Stanly County and the Yadkin Riverkeeper environmental group both were challenging the water quality certification in a state administrative law court when the certification was revoked.
Yadkin Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks said Alcoa is choosing not to prove in court that the state had misinterpreted its emails.
“I think that this is an admission by Alcoa that they falsified their 401 water quality certification regarding compliance with dissolved oxygen levels,” Naujoks said. “If Alcoa believed they were right, they would’ve gone to trial as scheduled in December.”
Alcoa maintains that it did not falsify information, Anton said. Based on its data showing water quality improvements, he said, the company is confident it can comply with state requirements.
Naujoks also stressed that Alcoa still isn’t meeting dissolved oxygen standards at two of its four dams – the ones at High Rock and Tuckertown lakes.
Anton said Naujoks is right about the two dams, but FERC will not allow it to install more of the technology until it has a new license.
“It’s actually his actions and the actions of others that are stopping the installation of the equipment,” Anton said. “We want to come into compliance. … If we were able to install the equipment, we would be able to hit the standards.”
Alcoa says it has already completed upgrades at three turbines at Narrows Dam and has committed to invest an additional $80 million to continue improving water quality at the Yadkin Project, beginning with a $40 million investment at High Rock Dam, as a condition of the 401 water quality certificate.
Contact reporter Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.
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