Drummond: Inola smelter would occupy 633 acres, nearly double figure from June filing
By Staff Reports
INOLA, Okla. — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond asked a federal judge Tuesday to block construction of a proposed aluminum smelter near Inola, citing a discrepancy in the project’s reported size and warning of environmental and public health risks to Rogers County.
Drummond’s motion for a preliminary injunction, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma, states the proposed facility would occupy 633 acres along the Verdigris River. Drummond’s original petition, filed in June in Rogers County District Court, described the same project as occupying approximately 350 acres. The filing does not explain the 283-acre difference between the two figures.
The case began in Rogers County District Court in June, when Drummond filed suit seeking to block the project. Attorneys for Century Aluminum Co. removed the case to federal court in July. Drummond’s Tuesday motion also asks the federal court to remand the case back to Rogers County District Court.
The proposed facility, known as Oklahoma Primary Aluminum, is a joint venture between Emirates Global Aluminium, a state-owned aluminum producer controlled by the government of the United Arab Emirates, and Century Aluminum Co., a publicly traded American company based in Chicago. According to Drummond’s filing, EGA holds a 60% controlling interest in the venture, and Century Aluminum holds the remaining 40%.
Drummond’s filing states that Century Aluminum’s largest shareholder is Glencore, a global commodities trading company that is also Century’s largest customer. According to Drummond, Century disclosed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the federal agency responsible for regulating publicly traded companies, that non-U.S. affiliates of Glencore entered into agricultural-product sales contracts involving entities wholly or majority owned by the government of Iran. Drummond’s filing characterizes the disclosure this way; the underlying SEC filing was not independently reviewed for this report.
Drummond’s motion includes a declaration from Ranajit Sahu, an environmental engineer, who states that the smelter’s air-quality permit application projects annual emissions of 87,182 tons of carbon monoxide, 731 tons of particulate matter and 425 tons of total fluoride compounds. Sahu states in the declaration that actual emissions would likely exceed those projections. Sahu also states that the facility, if built as proposed, would rank as the highest fluoride emitter among the seven primary aluminum plants included in the most recent National Emissions Inventory, and, by his comparison, the highest-emitting industrial facility in the country across all industries. That comparison reflects Sahu’s own analysis and has not been independently verified.
Fluoride emissions can settle on hay and other vegetation. Cattle that consume contaminated forage over time can develop fluorosis, a condition that damages teeth and can impair an animal’s ability to graze. Inola is home to an annual hay festival and describes itself as the Hay Capital of the World.
The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, the state agency responsible for reviewing industrial air-quality permits, has not approved the smelter’s construction permit. According to Drummond’s release accompanying the motion, DEQ has suspended its review of the application, citing findings that the applicant’s own emissions calculations exceed the fluoride limits proposed in the permit application.
Drummond’s filing states that the project includes a federal award of up to $500 million and approximately $255 million in state performance-based incentives.
The Town of Inola’s temporary moratorium on new construction approvals at the site is set to expire Aug. 28.