By Edgar Miller, Riverkeeper
Site of the former Alcoa aluminum smelter plant in Badin, NC. The Alcoa-Badin Landfill is the grassy area bottom left adjacent to the community of West Badin. The Badin Lake boat access area is in the upper right corner. Note in this photo that all but two of the smelter buildings, which are now gone, have been removed raising questions about the impact of the demolition on the community and water resources.
The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (NCDEQ) Division of Water Resources (DWR) has issued a Draft National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) stormwater permit for the Alcoa Badin Business Park in Badin, NC. If approved, the permit will allow Alcoa to continue to release stormwater contaminated with fluoride, cyanide, aluminum and other potentially toxic materials leaching from hazardous waste disposed of on the site of Alcoa’s former aluminum smelter into Badin Lake/Yadkin River and Little Mountain Creek.
NCDEQ will hold a public hearing on the draft permit on August 19 at 6:00 PM at the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons located at 1000 N. First Street, Albemarle, N.C. Written comments may be submitted by email before August 20 at 5 PM to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov.
Yadkin Riverkeeper has been engaged in the fight to get Alcoa to clean up its hazardous waste improperly disposed of in and around the smelter site and the historically African American community of West Badin. That waste has resulted in contaminated stormwater that is leaching into the Yadkin River, Badin Lake and Little Mountain Creek. YRK has called for NCDEQ’s Division of Waste Management (DWM) to require Alcoa to excavate the most dangerous of its disposal sites to remove the source of stormwater contamination and to prevent further degradation of water quality.
Represented by the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic (DELPC) since the mid-2010s, YRK has convened citizen forums, organized stakeholder meetings, testified at public hearings and pressured NCDEQ to hold Alcoa accountable to clean up these disposal sites. The release of the Draft NPDES permit is the culmination of more than three years of review of the current permit, which expired in October 2022. In partnership with the DELPC, Southern Environmental Law Center, Concerned Citizens of West Badin and NC Environmental Justice Network, Yadkin Riverkeeper has worked diligently to provide information and comments on potential permit requirements to reduce the amount of contaminated stormwater being discharged into Badin Lake/Yadkin River and Little Mountain Creek, which flows into Lake Tillery, the drinking water supply for Montgomery and Union Counties.
Alcoa Badin Business Park Draft NPDES Permit Outfall Map
On balance, the draft NPDES permit incorporates many of YRK’s recommendations to protect water quality, including:
Increased frequency of monitoring for fluoride and cyanide at Outfall 005 and moving from semi-annual to quarterly monitoring for several stormwater outfalls.
Requiring Alcoa to do an environmental scan for more than 80 priority pollutants at Outfalls 5, 12 and 13, allowing the permit to be reopened if additional pollutants are found at elevated levels.
Requiring signage at Outfalls 11 and 12 on Badin Lake near the public boating access and swimming areas warning of potentially contaminated stormwater discharges. YRK is also recommending signage be required at Outfall 13, which is the closest stormwater discharge to the public swimming area.
Explicitly requiring Alcoa to use state-certified labs that can test outfall effluent and lake water quality samples down to the current water quality standards for cyanide.
Using a more reliable and workable acute toxicity screening method.
Evaluating and approving treatment technology to improve compliance with fluoride effluent limits at Outfall 5. Alcoa has had more than 20 violations of its fluoride limits at Outfall 5 between 2020-24.
Requiring Alcoa to monitor for more water quality parameters to determine if effluent limits are needed for aluminum at certain outfalls.
Outfall 11 on Badin Lake
YRK is pleased with these additions and considers them significant improvements to the existing NPDES permit, but believes additional requirements are needed to protect public health, the environment and water quality long term. These include:
Establishing a permit requirement that if state ambient water quality standards for cyanide and/or fluoride are exceeded in Badin Lake, a Class B recreational water body, a permit violation should be issued with maximum fines.
Eliminating the use of the so-called “mixing zone” at Outfall 12, which allows Alcoa to discharge up 50 times the current cyanide water quality standard into the middle of Badin Lake’s public access area, which is an inappropriate area for use of a mixing zone.
Removing, diverting or treating contaminated stormwater at Outfalls 11, 12 and 13, which impact public boat access and swimming areas.
Discharge at Outfall 5, which eventually flows into Little Mountain Creek, cited for fluoride violations more than 20 times by NCDEQ from 2020-24.
YRK and its partners will be preparing detailed comments and talking points for members and supporters interested in submitting comments or testifying at the upcoming public hearing on August 19.
While the improved NPDES permit is a positive step by NCDEQ, the next big milestone will be the final review and approval of Alcoa Badin Business Park’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Corrective Action permit, which will prescribe a “final remedy” for the Alcoa site’s hazardous waste cleanup. The draft RCRA permit is expected to be issued sometime in 2026.
YRK and its partners are calling on NCDEQ’s Division of Waste Management to fully evaluate the potential for surface and groundwater contamination coming from unlined hazardous waste disposal sites around the plant and require Alcoa to remove the source of that contamination, including aluminum smelter waste, which the US EPA classifies as a hazardous waste. YRK is also recommending Alcoa and DEQ to expand public participation in the RCRA permit decision making process to ensure the Concerned Citizens of West Badin’s long standing environmental justice issues are addressed.
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