Senator Fletcher Hartsell of Cabarrus County introduced a bill on Wednesday to create a State Trust that would allow the State of North Carolina to seize the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. (See the bill at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/BillLookUp/BillLookUp.pl?Session=2009&BillID=s967 )
Why? I and many others don’t understand why.
I believe that Alcoa Power Generating, Inc. (APGI) has been a good steward of the River and the Lakes. Yes, we have had issues with them in the past over the Shoreline Management Plan and most recently with the Low Inflow Protocol (LIP) specification, but they didn’t come up with these alone. They developed them with the help of the N.C. Dept. of Environment & Natural Resources and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission among many others. And I believe we have a good shot at revising the LIP working with APGI and others that form the Yadkin-Pee Dee Drought Management Advisory Group (YPD-DMAG) based on the initial experience of operating with it during the summer of 2008.
If the state takes over the Yadkin Project, will they then proceed to take over other hydropower projects in the state such as those operated by Progress Energy on the Pee Dee River, and the hydropower project operated by Duke Power on the Catawba River? Now, I am not an advocate of unrestrained free enterprise because history has shown that large corporations will take advantage of their market power to set prices and restrain competition unless they are regulated. But the hydropower generation business is highly regulated. Witness the long and very expensive process that APGI has just gone through to relicense the Yadkin Project. And APGI can’t control the price they get for selling power. That is negotiated with the power distribution company they sell the power to – for example Progress Energy or Duke Power.
As for the PCB and mercury contamination issues, the levels found in the APGI managed lakes is no different from most other lakes in North Carolina and not likely caused by Alcoa in the first place. Alcoa does admit that they have contamination issues around the old Badin Works plant where they smelted aluminum until 2002, but they are working to clean up those sites and, in any event, that issue should not be tied to the operation of the hydropower business.
What do you think? Are there those of you around the Lake who believe that the State has a case for taking over the Yadkin Project and would do a better job of managing it? Post your comments here or email me at kenney@BadinLakeAssociation.com.
………………………….Garry
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