NCDEQ to hold public hearing on draft water discharge permit for former Alcoa aluminum facility in Stanly County

Down Ballot Staff Reports

RALEIGH – The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) will hold a public hearing on Aug. 19 in order to accept public comments on the draft renewal permit for Badin Business Park, a former Alcoa Inc. aluminum industrial facility located in Badin in Stanly County.

Badin Business Park’s (BBP) aluminum products facility, also known as Alcoa Badin Works, closed in 2010. While the facility is no longer operational, DWR regulates groundwater and stormwater discharged from the site under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, permit (NPDES pemit No. NC0004308).

The permit was last issued in 2019, and has been administratively continued. Until DWR renews the permit, Badin Business Park must continue meeting limits in the existing permit. DWR’s proposed permit will continue to require Badin Business Park to monitor for pollutants at certain outfalls, or discharge points, to have results tested at a laboratory certified by DWR, and to report those findings to DWR.

Additional monitoring requirements have been added to the permit, including monitoring for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs), and metals at several outfalls that discharge to a tributary of Little Mountain Creek, and to Badin Lake (outfalls 005, 012 and 013).

The draft wastewater permit and related documents are available online: Public Notices. In addition, the materials, including the draft community profile, can be found in NCDEQ’s online document repository, Laserfiche: Badin Business Park online permit file.

Printed copies of the draft permit and related documents may be reviewed at the department's Mooresville Regional Office at 610 E. Center Ave., Suite 301, Mooresville, N.C., 28115.