Published: February 09, 2007 07:58 am      

Federal agency joins Alcoa showdown

Thursday, February 8, 2007 — Stanly County officials aren’t the only folks concerned about the relicensing of Alcoa’s dams on the Yadkin River.

The United States Department of the Interior filed a notice of intervention Dec. 28.

Alcoa Power Generating Inc. (APGI) was in negotiations with Stanly County and other stakeholders on agreement in principle. The county refused to sign the agreement last summer and filed an intervention with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ecological Services Office is concerned with the length of the license that APGI is applying for in the process.

A biologist for the department’s office in Raleigh, Mark Bowers, said the Department of Interior prefers 30- to 40-year licenses.

“We would have intervened anyway - this is sort of a formality,” he said. “The main reason is the length of the license term.

“We only approve of a 40-year terms if good mitigation has come to the agreement.”

Mark Cantrell, a fish and wildlife biologist in the Asheville office, has been involved with the Yadkin process and with APGI’s Tapoco Division in Tennessee.

“We usually intervene to protect the resources, fish and wildlife,” he said.

“We have been involved with the relicensing from work we have done on hydroelectric dams with the Tapoco project,” Cantrell said.

He said some of the concerns are minimum flows of the river, shoreline management and endangered species specifically the Yadkin River Goldenrod.

Bowers said the intervention is procedural route the department takes to make them a party to the all of the proceedings with FERC.

FERC is the agency responsible of issuing licenses for hydroelectric operations.

Bowers said some other issues are with Progress Energy and river flows below the Tillery Dam.



Matt Irvin can be contacted at snaponline26@yahoo.com