MANNING
PORT OF SPAIN (The Trinidad Guardian):
ALCOA SUBMITTED a certificate of environmental clearance (CEC) to the Environmental Management Agency for its proposed 341,000 metric tonne per year Chatham aluminium smelter last Thursday.
Highlights of the CEC application, which was signed by Alcoa executive Randy Overbey and local attorney Steve Myers, include:
The total proposed investment in the smelter, which will be 100 per cent Alcoa-owned, will be about US$1.5 billion. Construction is intended to begin in 2007 with production start date between late 2008 and early 2009.
The ownership of the 600 hectare land allocated for the Chatham industrial estate will remain with the National Energy Corporation. Only approximately 200 hectares of this total 600 hectares will be cleared for the smelter and associated facilities.
LAND TO BE LEASED
Only 200 hectares (494 acres) of the total estate will be leased to Alcoa and cleared for the construction and operation of the aluminium smelter and associated facilities; It will be left as natural vegetation or utilised for such purposes as conservation, advanced agriculture/horticulture, ecological education.
The remaining 400 hectares (988 acres) will be developed in keeping with the "smelter in the park" concept after consultation with appropriate government agencies and neighbouring communities. It will be left as natural vegetation or utilised for such purposes as conservation, advanced agriculture/horticulture, ecological education or beekeeping;
Alcoa proposes to construct a 341,000 mt (approximate) aluminium smelter, anode production facilities, and intermediate/downstream fabricating facility.
The aluminium smelter will utilise state-of-the-art air emission control systems, institute processes to reduce/eliminate process wastewater discharges and implement programmes to reduce/recycle/minimise solid waste generation and disposal. Ambient air quality will be monitored at site boundaries and publicly reported.
FLUORIDE EMISSIONS
For fluoride emissions, the level will be three times more stringent than the current US standard. Exposures will be controlled to levels that are safe for employee and community health and the environment.
A waste stream of spent potlining (SPL), from the aluminium smelting process, will be generated from about the fifth year of operation. It will not be landfilled in T&T. It will be reused/recycled utilising the best available technology at that time.
In the absence of a constructive process for recycling in T&T, spent potlining will be shipped out of the country for reprocessing elsewhere.
A natural gas fired power facility with the capacity to continuously supply approximately 580 MW of electricity to the smelting facility will also be constructed.
Separate CEC applications will be submitted for a port facility and power station
which may require coastline stabilisation/alteration.
