It is with great amusement that I read the letter from Alcoa’s representative, Randy Overbey. Randy suggests that there were several erroneous statements published that will mislead the T&T public. Randy felt that he must clarify these statements because our local population cannot critically read published information.

Overbey goes on to clarify our erroneous comments by providing us with several vague statements. He suggests that industry and agriculture can coexist and provides an example from Brazil informing us that 119 farmers harvest 30 tons of fresh produce monthly from land within their Sao Luis smelter. What Randy fails to mention is that Alcoa is expanding this Sao Luis refinery and is also creating a bauxite mine in Juruti and modernising the smelter in Pocos de Caldas.

Why? In the words of Alcoa’s chairman and CEO, Alain Belda, “Our Brazilian operations are among the lowest cost facilities in our system as well as in the world.”

Keep in mind that in 2001, Brazilian aluminium producers were upset at the government’s order to cut electricity usage by 25 per cent and lobbied for a reversal of this law. They were more concerned about losing $255 million while the country faced its worse energy crisis. The bottom line is that Alcoa is concerned only about their profits.

Overbey then went on to explain that only 70 families were being relocated and it was the government’s responsibility to do this. Overbey wants to convince us that it is not Alcoa but the T&T government that is relocating these people. This is a common strategy used by multinational corporations: let the government deal with local issues so that no blame falls on them.

Is Alcoa aware of the government’s track record in relocating homeowners? Ask them about the disaster in relocating homes when building the Uriah Butler highway. It might be in Alcoa’s interest to handle this task yourself.

Overbey went on to point out that Alcoa is not getting free gas as we foolishly thought but will pay for the gas they use. How much is Alcoa going to pay for that gas?

Let me remind you what your CEO said about Brasil, “Lowest cost facilities,” meaning cheap source of electricity. Smelters use very high levels of power, millions of amperes of electricity. Imagine how much you will save by getting our natural gas at next to nothing. Why don’t you pay us the price charged in the US? To me that would be fair.

Let me remind you, that aluminium producers are fleeing the US because of soaring costs and they are running to countries with cheap energy resources and limited enforcement of environmental laws.

Some air emissions from your plant would include nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, carbon oxides among others. NOx, SOx and COx are three gases that are classified as pollutants. When released into the atmosphere, all three gases react with water vapour and form acids which then fall to the surface as acid rain. The effect of this is that when it gets into our water system then that too will become acidic. The end result, is that our aquatic life will die. If it falls on land, then it will acidify our soil and destroy the produce from our farmers. Maybe the government will be responsible for compensating these farmers for their losses.

Some other emissions from your plant include carbon tetrachloride, carbon hexafluoride, chlorinated benzenes, bioxins, and furans. Not only are these emissions extremely hazardous to human health, they are also greenhouse gases and therefore contribute to global warming. So advise Alcoa not to build their plant near the sea, you might be underwater in ten years.

In addition, do you want to also tell us about noise from your plant?

Are you going to have noise abatement measures in place?

What about the treatment of your workers?

Who will repair the road after your trucks damage them in transporting materials to and from your plant?

Maybe that is also the government’s responsibility?

Tell us more, Randy.

Steven A. White

swhite@hotmail.com