Spent pot lining
Every 6 or 7 years, carbon linings are replaced in pots used in aluminum
smelters. This lining (or cathode) is made of refractory bricks and carbon.
It also contains material from the electrolytic bath: heavy metals and
cyanide. (International Aluminium Institute, “Cathode waste,” on its
website world-aluminium.org)
Around the world, most spent potlining is landfilled. Some is stored above
ground in a dry chamber. In the United States, the Environmental Protection
Agency first listed spent potliners as a hazardous waste (code K088). It
prohibits the landfilling of spent potlining unless it has been treated to
reduce the amount of hazardous constituents: 25 in all, including cyanide,
fluoride, toxic metals (including lead and mercury), and PAHs. (U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, “Land Disposal Restrictions; Treatment
Standards for Spent Potliners From Primary Aluminum Reduction (K088) and
Regulatory Classification of K088 Vitrification Units,” Federal Register,
July 12, 2000 (Vol 65, No. 134), pp. 42937-42959)
According to a June 20, 1998, report in the main newspaper of Surinam, De
Ware Tijd, Alcoa’s subsidiary might bury toxic waste not only from its
Suralco smelter but also waste from abroad. “Suralco is planning to bury
its chemical waste, the so-called ‘spent pot lining’ (SPL), just as it did
in 1993. It will not only bury waste from the aluminum smelter at Paranam,
but also chemical waste from the parent company Alcoa in Pittsburgh,” the
Forest Peoples Project quoted the newspaper as reporting. (“Maroon
Community Petitions Suriname Government about the Operations of a US-owned
Bauxite Mining Company,” Forest Peoples Programme, September 17, 1998)
Illegal wastewater discharges
In March 2000, Alcoa agreed to pay $8.8 million to settle environmental
claims filed by the federal Justice Department and the Environmental
Protection Agency. The agencies charged Alcoa with violating the Clean
Water and Clean Air Acts at its Warrick, Indiana, sheet production plant.
The payout included a $2.4 million fine; the balance will be spent to
reduce hazardous waste generation and study air pollution reduction
technology.
The Justice Department alleged that Alcoa “illegally discharged
inadequately-treated wastewater to the Ohio River from 1994 until 1999,
while company-sponsored tests showed that the mixture of pollutants in the
wastewater was deadly toxic to fish and invertebrates.” (U.S. Department of
Justice, “Alcoa to pay $8.8 million to settle environmental claims,” press
release March 13, 2000)
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