The Yadkin Riverkeeper® has acclaimed the contempo accession of angle burning advising signs alternating Badin Lake admonishing humans not to eat catfish and largemouth bass from the backlog due to animated levels of PCBs begin in samples in a abstraction conducted by the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS issued this advising for Badin Lake, which empties into the Yadkin River via Narrows Dam, on Feb. 11, but Alcoa, which oversees the basin as allotment of its administration of the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project, has against accepting the signs on the website and filed an address April 9 agitation the arising of the advisory, claiming it was unjustified. In ablaze of a aftereffect abstraction appear in aboriginal August by baptize above able John H. Rodgers, Jr., Ph.D., that accepted there is a accord amid the PCBs acclimated at Alcoa’s Badin Works ability on the Yadkin River and the PCBs begin in the angle and sediments in Badin Lake, the Yadkin Riverkeeper says Alcoa’s accomplishments reflect ailing on its claims of accepting environmentally acute for the Project and serves as added absolution that it should not accept addition 50-year federal authorization to administer the Project, as it is now aggravating to accomplish.
Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper, said Alcoa’s denials about its captivation with PCBs in Badin Lake are a arguable point with the latest study. He is allurement the aggregation to explain why it has been angry the advising agilely even as added affirmation indicates it is the antecedent of abundant contagion at the lake.
“The accession of these signs is overdue, accustomed how DHHS aboriginal appear the advising to the media six months ago,” said Naujoks. “Since then, Alcoa has fought to accumulate these signs traveling up as appropriate by law, which says volumes about how it respects ecology legislation for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. What Alcoa says about its charge for convalescent the ecology above of the Project generally is not squaring up with what it is in actuality accomplishing appropriate now.”
The acquaint bilingual (English and Spanish) angle burning advising signs at the basin apprehend as follows:
“Do not eat added than one (1) meal a anniversary of catfish or largemouth bass from Badin Lake. If you are pregnant, may become pregnant, are nursing, or are a adolescent beneath 15 years of age, do not eat any of these fish. Elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) accept been begin in some catfish and largemouth bass. Swimming, boating, and administration angle do not present a accepted bloom risk.
“Eating added than one meal a anniversary of these angle may access a person’s accident of developing bloom problems such as cancer, infection, or derma problems. The babies of abundant or nursing women who eat these angle may acquaintance adorning or added bloom problems.”
PCBs are apparent animal carcinogens and are associated with added bloom risks, including anemia; accident to the liver, abdomen or thyroid gland; changes in the allowed arrangement or changeable system; and behavioral problems.
When he was appointed Yadkin Riverkeeper, Naujoks advised letters of absolute contagion at Badin Lake, a 5,300-acre anatomy of baptize that flows into the river in Stanly County via Narrows Dam. It is one of four reservoirs alternating a 38-mile amplitude of the Yadkin River that comprise the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project. Reports of decades of abuse in the across associated with a now-defunct smelter Alcoa operated abreast it, including abstracts that Alcoa absolved such contaminants as PCBs into the air, acreage and waterways, prompted Naujoks to investigate added items apropos the firm’s activities.
Naujoks has been afterward studies of Badin Lake intently, abnormally the plan of Dr. Rodgers, who alternate in the DHHS sampling and connected researching the basin by accession and belief seven debris samples and reviewing N.C. Division of Waste Management abstracts on the PCBs acclimated at the Alcoa Badin Works Facility. PCBs are a ancestors of automated chlorinated actinic compounds that cover 209 accessible forms, or “congeners,” so Dr. Rogers 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) and added locations of the lake.
Dr. Rodgers assured from his analysis the accord amid PCBs acclimated at Alcoa’s Badin Works ability on the Yadkin River and the PCBs begin in the angle and sediments in Badin Lake. Congeners detected in the angle tissue provided added affirmation of sediments as a antecedent of PCBs, while PCB congeners detected in sediments from the southwest arm (near the Alcoa facility) accept concentrations 10 to 100 times greater than sediments from added locations of the lake.
With this advice and added analysis he has studied, Naujoks opposes Alcoa’s relicensing effort, because his obligations as Yadkin Riverkeeper absorb respecting, protecting, and convalescent the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin, and the firm’s appliance fails to accommodated these goals for the river.
“Alcoa has a harder time even acknowledging the actuality that there are PCBs in the lake, which is bad enough, but accustomed the threats PCBs affectation to humans, it is a abasement that Alcoa would rather attempt people’s bloom than be honest about its situation,” assured Naujoks. “They should not be accustomed to act this way for addition 50 years and bribery the accessible assurance for the Yadkin Hydroelectric Project.”
About the Yadkin Riverkeeper®:
The Yadkin Riverkeeper’s mission is to respect, assure and advance the Yadkin Pee Dee River Basin through education, advancement and action. It is aimed at creating a apple-pie and advantageous river that sustains activity and is admired by its people. To accomplish this vision, it seeks to accomplish the afterward objectives: sustain a RIVERKEEPER® program, measurably advance baptize quality, reestablish built-in bio-diversity, bottle and enhance the backwoods canopy, accompany acknowledged action to accomplish accompaniment and federal ecology laws, and advise and convenance a “river ethic” of ecological account to all ages. For added information, appointment http://www.yadkinriverkeeper.org or alarm 336-293-8105.
About Dean Naujoks:
Dean Naujoks is the Yadkin Riverkeeper, active by Yadkin Riverkeeper Inc. back the abatement of 2008 to administer and apparatus a river advancement affairs for the Yadkin Pee Dee River watershed in North Carolina that will accumulate it a advantageous and active river for association and businesses in the continued term. Yadkin Riverkeeper is a accountant affiliate of the Waterkeeper Alliance, which connects and supports bounded Waterkeeper programs to accommodate a articulation and best apple-pie baptize for waterways and their communities worldwide. A longtime baptize above advocate, Naujoks became the aboriginal Upper Neuse Riverkeeper in 2001 at the nonprofit Neuse River Foundation. His job there was to adviser altitude and advocate for aegis of the Neuse River from Falls Lake to Goldsboro. He was appointed by Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker to serve on the collective government PCB Task Force to abode PCB contagion in Crabtree Creek from Ward Transformer. A alum of N.C. State, Naujoks created his own above in ecology action and acceptable development. He aswell formed for the NC Wild Life Federation from 1991-1999. Naujoks has accustomed American Rivers’ 2009 National “River Hero” Award on account of his efforts.
Media Contact:
Dean Naujoks
Yadkin Riverkeeper®
2435 Westfield Ave.
Winston-Salem, N.C.
dean@yadkinriverkeeper.org
www.yadkinriverkeeper.org
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