Alcoa Dam License Deal Would Save 10,000 Acres

ALCOA, Tennessee, May 13, 2004 (ENS) - One of the greatest expanses of wilderness in the eastern United States was preserved Monday as 21 national and local environmental and regulatory groups and Alcoa Power Generating Inc. signed an agreement to protect lands around Calderwood Lake.

Alcoa Power operates four hydroelectric dams in Tennessee and North Carolina under operating licenses that expire in February 2005. The Pittsburgh based company opened discussions seven years ago with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as well as other national and state agencies, local communities and environmental groups seeking to renew the licenses.

The deal provides that Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum producer, and Alcoa Power will help to preserve 10,000 acres of undeveloped land in Tennessee and North Carolina in exchange for renewal of the operating licenses.

Under the arrangement, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will transfer 100 acres under Calderwood Lake to Alcoa in exchange for 186 acres of land already within the park's boundaries.

Alcoa Power will grant a permanent easement for 5,700 acres of land between the park and Cherokee National Forest to an environmental group, The Nature Conservancy.

The Conservancy will have the option to buy the land from Alcoa Power and resell it to the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service or Tennessee Wildlife Resources to assure its long term protection.

In addition, Alcoa Power will grant The Nature Conservancy a 40 year easement on 4,000 more acres of land that will return to the company's possession at the end of the term.

Alcoa Power will establish a $100,000 per year conservation fund for natural resource protection and renewal in Tennessee. The fund will be overseen by groups signing the agreement on Monday.

"Alcoa Power is proud to bring together these diverse groups in a consensus document protecting the environment and sustaining hydropower generation," Kevin Anton, president of Alcoa Materials Management, said in a statement.

"This is one of the most vast and undisturbed wilderness regions in the eastern United States, and the only such area in the southern Appalachians," said Steve McCormick, The Nature Conservancy's president and chief executive.

"We will be able to protect the entire Tallassee Creek watershed, perhaps the only remaining unprotected high elevation, low gradient stream in the region," he said.

U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, helped to arrange the agreement, introducing legislation April 19 that would allow the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve the deal.

Congress also must approve the land exchanges between Alcoa Power and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Additional measures under the agreement cover the North Carolina portion of the hydroelectric project, according to Alcoa. Those include augmenting flows into the Cheoah River, setting up a conservation fund and building or improving recreation facilities.

Signatories of the agreement are: Alcoa Power Generating Inc., American Rivers, Blount County, City of Alcoa, City of Maryville, Cross Creek Property Owners Association, Friends of Lake Santeetlah, Graham County, North Carolina, National Park Service, National Parks Conservation Association, North Carolina Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, The Nature Conservancy's Tennessee Chapter, Tennessee Clean Water Network, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Town of Lake Santeetlah, Town of Robbinsville, U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service and Western North Carolina Alliance.