The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s Division of Water Resources (DWR) is set to hold a public hearing on August 19 to gather public input on the draft renewal permit for Badin Business Park. This facility, formerly known as Alcoa Inc.’s aluminum industrial site, is located in Badin, Stanly County.
The hearing will take place at 6 p.m. in the Gene McIntyre Meeting Room at Stanly County Commons, Albemarle. Registration for speakers begins at 5:30 p.m. onsite.
Badin Business Park’s aluminum products facility, also referred to as Alcoa Badin Works, ceased operations in 2010. Despite its closure, DWR continues to regulate groundwater and stormwater discharges from the site under a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit (NPDES permit No. NC0004308).
The current permit was issued in 2019 and has been administratively continued since then. Until a new permit is issued by DWR, Badin Business Park must adhere to the existing permit’s requirements. The proposed renewal will maintain obligations for monitoring pollutants at certain discharge points and having results tested by a DWR-certified laboratory before reporting them back to DWR.
Additional monitoring requirements are included in the draft permit, focusing on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and metals at several outfalls discharging into Little Mountain Creek tributary and Badin Lake.
Interested parties can access the draft wastewater permit and related documents online through Public Notices or NCDEQ’s Laserfiche document repository. Printed copies are available for review at the department’s Mooresville Regional Office by appointment with Andrew Pitner, regional supervisor.
Public comments can be submitted verbally during the hearing or sent via mail or email until August 20. Comments mailed should be addressed to Derek Denard at NPDES Wastewater Permitting in Raleigh, while email submissions should be directed to publiccomments@deq.nc.gov with “Badin Business Park Permit” as the subject line.
All received comments will be considered before making a final decision on the permit issuance and its provisions.
