The NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources recently published notice of its intent to issue a Special Order by Consent (SOC) for Alcoa’s Badin Business Park located in Badin, NC. The facility discharges groundwater, stormwater and fire protection water into Little Mountain Creek and Badin Lake. It is unclear from the SOC how the design and construction of an upgraded stormwater piping system will help BBP attain compliance with the final effluent limitations in BBP’s NPDES Permit NC0004308. Yadkin Riverkeeper is opposed to the state issuing the SOC as it will increase pollution in Badin Lake.
Item 1.a of the proposed SOC notes, “Badin Park is unable to consistently comply with the final effluent limits for Total Fluoride and Total Cyanide as set forth in NPDES permit NC0004308 for Outfall 005.” Instead of holding Alcoa accountable for its discharge violations, the state under the proposed SOC, appears to support simply diverting this discharge to a “mixing zone,” in Badin Lake, where it would be diluted to meet the effluent standard.
The proposed SOC would allow BBP to discharge more than nine times the current effluent limitation for cyanide for up to two years, while the new piping system is being completed. There are more than 40 documented solid waste disposal units in and around BBP containing hazardous waste that is leaching into the groundwater and being discharged through the stormwater system into Badin Lake and Little Mountain Creek. The constant source of cyanide and fluoride, along with other hazardous constituents, has made it difficult, if not impossible for BBP to comply with its existing SOC, which expired in October of 2019. The proposed new SOC would not only allow BBP to continue to exceed the NPDES effluent limitations, but also give them another two years to attain compliance, while allowing up to nine times more cyanide to be discharged into Little Mountain Creek during the interim.
As a result of the potential and ongoing impact on the water quality of Little Mountain Creek and Badin Lake, which is already under a PCB advisory for fish consumption, Yadkin Riverkeeper is calling on the NC Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources to hold a public hearing on the proposed SOC. The Southern Environmental Law Center will be filing comments on behalf of YRK. almost 50 individuals have already contacted NCDEQ requesting a public hearing. For more information on the proposed SOC go to:
Please consider contacting Derek Denard in the NCDEQ Division of Water Resources to request a public hearing be held on the proposed SOC for Alcoa BBP. His email address is derek.denard@ncdenr.gov. You can find an email template here.