John H. Rodgers, Jr., Ph.D., a acclaimed baptize above able with Clemson University, has appear a new abstraction that indicates there is a accord amid the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) acclimated at Alcoa’s Badin Works ability on the Yadkin River and the PCBs begin in the angle and sediments in Badin Lake, a 5,300-acre backlog that empties into the Yadkin through the Narrows Dam. This cessation adds added affirmation that Alcoa is the antecedent of the PCB contagion begin in the basin beforehand this year. It is aswell yet addition archetype of how Alcoa has been a poor abettor of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, which includes four dams and powerhouses alternating a 38-mile amplitude of the Yadkin River at High Rock, Tuckertown, Narrows and Falls Reservoirs in Davie, Davidson, Rowan, Montgomery and Stanly counties.
Alcoa, a bunch firm, has activated for a new 50-year authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to control, administer and sustain buying of baptize abounding from the Yadkin River and abide administering its cartel of hydropower generated by the Project. Opponents of Alcoa’s administration of the Project, including the Stanly County Board of Commissioners, accept cited the firm’s poor ecology almanac as a key acumen for abstinent the relicensing. As Badin Lake serves as the primary antecedent of bubbler baptize for Stanly County, a area for fishing and swimming, and an bread-and-butter disciplinarian for the absolute Uwharrie Lakes Region/N.C. Central Park and the State of North Carolina, this new hotlink attached the PCBs in angle and debris in the basin with Alcoa’s own operations strengthens that concern.
Using 30 angle samples calm Feb. 11 and seven debris samples calm April 2, Dr. Rodgers compared samples with advice on the PCBs acclimated at the Alcoa Badin Works Facility provided by the N.C. Division of Waste Management this year. As PCBs are a ancestors of automated chlorinated actinic compounds that cover 209 accessible forms, or “congeners,” he and Dr. Matt Huddleston analyzed the PCB congeners and concentrations in the angle tissue with those in debris samples from the southwest arm of Badin Lake (near the Alcoa facility), the northwest arm and the northeast arm. Based on their analysis, they accomplished the afterward conclusions:
-There is a accord amid PCB congeners in sediments from the southwest arm of Badin Lake and PCBs in angle from the lake.
-Congeners detected in the angle tissue provided added affirmation of sediments as a antecedent of PCBs.
-PCB congeners detected in sediments from the southwest arm of the basin (near the Alcoa facility) accept concentrations decidedly greater (on the adjustment of 10 to 100 times greater) than sediments from added locations of the lake.
-PCBS congeners in sediments from the southwest arm co-occur added frequently with congeners detected in angle samples throughout the basin than do congeners in sediments from added locations of the lake.
-Fish sampled from the southwest arm of the basin were consistently added attenuated by PCBs than angle calm from added locations of the lake.
The doctors again compared the absolute PCB congeners in the debris and the angle with the congeners present in the Alcoa-related PCB and detected a lot of of the closing in the angle tissue and debris samples from the lake. Of the 76 PCB congeners associated with Alcoa operations, 18 either were not analyzed in angle tissues or were accumulated with added congeners for appraisal of sediments. Of the actual 58 Alcoa-related PCB congeners that were analyzed individually, 57 occurred in angle tissue, 55 occurred in sentiments, and 54 occurred in both angle tissue and sediments for a greater than 93 percent match.
Earlier this year, the accompaniment abstraction begin animated levels of PCBs in Badin Lake fish, so on Feb. 11, the NC Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) issued a angle burning advising for Badin Lake advising that abundant women, nursing women and accouchement beneath age 15 should not eat any largemouth bass or catfish from Badin Lake and that added humans should not eat added than one meal a anniversary of catfish or ample aperture bass from Badin Lake. Alcoa filed a contested case arduous the announcement of the PCB angle burning advisory.
Fish burning advisories action if the DHHS finds angle in and about the accompaniment with animated levels of contaminants that may affectation a accident to animal health. Unborn accouchement and adolescent accouchement can be added affected to developing problems as a aftereffect of acquaintance with contaminants, which is why advisories are generally added acrimonious for them. According to the DHHS advisory, PCBs can could cause anemia; acne-like derma conditions; accident to the liver, abdomen or thyroid gland; changes in the allowed arrangement or changeable system; and behavioral problems.
The Stanly County Board of Commissioners maintains that Alcoa has bootless to apple-pie up its accomplished operations in the canton that absolved chancy pollutants into North Carolina air and waterways for decades and afflicted bulb and abominable ecosystems and afflicted bodies due to acknowledgment or ingestion. It favors enactment of the Yadkin River Trust, now beneath analysis by the General Assembly, to ensure bigger baptize above for the Project than what Alcoa provides.
Quotes:
“Once afresh Dr. Rodgers has appear advice that is damaging to Alcoa’s claims about accepting environmentally amenable for the decades it has maintained ascendancy of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project,” said Stanly County Commissioner Lindsey Dunevant. “On account of the board, we appetite accompaniment legislators, the DWQ and added anxious leaders to analysis this abstraction actively and explain why Alcoa’s almanac of abuse at Badin Lake, accumulated with its abnegation to say how and if it will apple-pie up its absolute contamination, accomplish it aces of accepting 50 added years to accomplishment and absorb baptize rights for our state’s second-largest river at the bread-and-butter and ecology amount of North Carolina citizens.”
Related Links:
www.co.stanly.nc.us
www.ncwaterrights.org
www.mmimarketing.com/podcast/North+Carolina+Water+Policy www.mmimarketing.com/podcast/North+Carolina+Water+Policy+part+II
About John H. Rodgers, Jr., Ph.D.:
A accustomed able in baptize quality, Dr. Rodgers is a assistant and administrator of the ecotoxicology affairs with the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources at Clemson University in South Carolina, as able-bodied as co-director of the Clemson Environmental Institute. He has formed professionally as a researcher, consultant, teacher, columnist and actor in anatomy and ecology studies for added than 35 years on hundreds of projects. His all-encompassing account of ceremoniousness and awards cover a advertisement in International Who’s Who and a affidavit of acknowledgment from the Environmental Protection Agency. A affiliate of the American Water Resources Association and the Water Pollution Control Federation, a allotment of added organizations, Dr. Rodgers becoming his Ph.D. in amphibian anatomy and botany at Virginia Tech in 1977.
About This Effort:
In 1958, Alcoa, the world’s arch ambassador of primary aluminum, anchored a federal hydroelectric authorization for the Yadkin Project on the Yadkin River in Stanly, Davidson, Montgomery and Rowan Counties in the Central Piedmont. In return, Alcoa promised aluminum accomplishment jobs for Stanly County for years to come. Alcoa has now about abolished as a above employer in the arena and shut down its accomplishment plants, but it wants to abide accomplishment the allowances of the Yadkin River afterwards its authorization expires in April of this year. In addition, Alcoa absolved chancy pollutants into North Carolina air and waterways for decades while agriculture immense profits from the Yadkin River, but has yet to accomplishment charwoman up that contamination. It has filed an appliance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to access addition 50-year license. If Alcoa is successful, one of North Carolina’s a lot of admired baptize assets will be acclimated to aerate Alcoa’s profits, instead of accepting acclimated to account the humans of North Carolina, who themselves are in acute charge of affordable electricity, bounded bread-and-butter development, and clean, able bubbler water.
Patty Briguglio
MMI Associates, Inc.
(919) 233-6600
patty@mmimarketing.com
PR Firms Raleigh, NC
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