RALEIGH — Alcoa Inc. moved closer to another decades-long license to operate dams on North Carolina’s second-largest river system after state environmental regulators said Friday they’d approved a key water quality certification with conditions.
The certification, required under the federal Clean Water Act, was necessary before federal energy regulators would approve a new license allowing Alcoa to keep running four dams on the Yadkin River for up to 50 years. Republican Gov. Pat McCrory and his Democratic predecessor, Beverly Perdue, have spent years trying to block Alcoa’s license renewal, arguing it would tie up water resources and future industrial development for decades.
The dams formerly powered an aluminum smelter where hundreds worked for generations before Alcoa closed it in 2007. The company has collected more than $175 million since then by selling the electricity to commercial customers.
The state’s conditions for meeting water quality standards are more favorable than a previous version issued in 2009 and later revoked because regulators said Alcoa withheld information.
The state previously required a $240 million guarantee the company would make dam improvements. The latest certification requires a bond of less than $45 million for the upgrades and a second $3 million bond to ensure monitoring of toxic heavy metals, PCBs and other pollutants left by the smelter.
The new conditions require “that the bond will cover the entire cost of any upgrades required as part of the certification, even if those costs exceed $48 million from the two bonds,” state Department of Environmental Quality spokesman Jamie Kritzer said in an email.
Alcoa officials said they were examining the details.
“We have been good stewards of the watershed for nearly 100 years and remain committed to meeting North Carolina water quality standards,” Ray Barham, the Alcoa executive responsible for securing the federal license, said in a statement.
The state’s action appears to meet a deadline set by a state judge last month giving regulators 30 days to decide on the clean water certificate.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the McCrory administration challenging Alcoa’s ownership of the riverbed. Evidence demonstrates that Alcoa holds title to 99 percent of the 40-mile segment of the Yadkin River bed in question, and ownership of the rest should have been challenged decades ago, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle said. The state is appealing his ruling.
