McCrory is right about Yadkin River

Editorial by Winston-Salem Journal, August 8, 2013.

Despite a recommendation by a state environmental official to the contrary, Alcoa Inc. should not be granted water quality certification of the Yadkin River where it operates four hydropower dams, nor issued a new federal license to continue operating the dams for its own profit.

In a somewhat embarrassing development in the two-year-long dispute over future ownership of the dams, it was revealed that an official with the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources recommended state approval for Alcoa less than a week before the state sued the company, challenging its property rights to the dams, The Associated Press reported.

Apparently, the water quality certification, which is necessary for Alcoa to seek renewal of its 50-year federal license, would have required Alcoa to post a bond and promise to make improvements. Just like an earlier promise to create new jobs sometime in the future, Alcoa’s intention to become good environmental stewards of the river is suspect.

After the state’s suit was filed, the DENR denied Alcoa its water quality certification. A certification was issued in 2009 but revoked the following year after the state discovered internal company emails that suggested officials withheld information about pollution of downstream waters.

The state’s suit argues that Alcoa has no ownership rights to the bed of the river over which the dams were built in 1917. It asks a Wake County judge to rule that North Carolina retains rights to the submerged land and therefore the dams, The AP reported. Alcoa disagrees with the state’s claim of ownership of the riverbed.

As we’ve written several times in this ongoing dispute, the Yadkin River belongs to the people of North Carolina, and any profits from its use to generate electric power should go to the people. The four dams were built to power an aluminum smelter in Stanly County that employed nearly 1,000 workers. The plant was closed in 2007, but Alcoa has continued to produce electricity and sell it to commercial customers at a profit in the millions of dollars every year.

"The Yadkin River is a North Carolina river," Gov. Pat McCrory said in a prepared statement. "We should be able to use it for North Carolina water needs and to create North Carolina jobs. The benefits of the Yadkin River belong to North Carolina's people."

We are behind Gov. McCrory on this issue, just as we were with former Gov. Bev Perdue, who also opposed Alcoa’s continued control of the river. We have said the company’s license should not be renewed and the state should take over control of the dams. In doing so, the state should compensate the company by paying a fair price for the dams and equipment.

The issue now hinges on the issue of ownership of the riverbeds beneath the dams. Ownership of land beneath commercially navigable waterways has traditionally gone to the state government, an argument put forth by Dean Naujoks, the Yadkin Riverkeeper.

But with some conflicting law out there on ownership based on navigability, we’re not sure how the courts may rule. But we are encouraged by what we consider a universal truth – that a God-given natural resource like a river should not be owned by a private interest. The Yadkin River belongs to the people of North Carolina.