Helter Smelter

By Jacob Pederson

June 12, 2020

Inside Intalco Works aluminum smelter, an operator manipulates the controls of a crane that jackhammers its way through a thick crust of hardened alumina, the substance from which aluminum is extracted. The smoldering fury of the molten bath below is gradually revealed as the machine chips away at the prison. Then, the brilliant red glow dies down as fresh, white alumina powder is added through a chute. In the skies nearby, a man in a small plane photographs the gases coming from the smokestacks.

In April, Alcoa Corporation announced its decision to temporarily stop production at the smelter in Ferndale, Washington by July. Most of Intalco’s 720 employees will be laid off by mid-summer with far-reaching effects on Whatcom County. Meanwhile, communities downwind of Intalco’s smokestacks could catch a break from a legacy of pollution.

When Intalco opened in 1966, it was one of ten aluminum smelters in the Pacific Northwest drawing on cheap electricity from dams. Now, Intalco is the last operating aluminum smelter west of the Mississippi and one of only six in the United States.

Intalco is facing a full curtailment. It could reopen and start making aluminum again, but only if profitable. This decision comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic is decreasing the price of aluminum, which was already low due to foreign competition, according to Hart Hodges, associate professor at Western Washington University’s Center for Economic and Business Research.

Before the pandemic, Intalco was making roughly $230 million annually. It has already lost $24 million this year.

As a result, Intalco’s first wave of layoffs started on June 4. More than half of the 720 workers will be unemployed by June 21, said Glenn Farmer, the business representative for the International Association of Machinists in Ferndale. The second wave will likely take place by the end of July or early August, leaving only 25 workers to keep the equipment in working order, he said. Layoffs will continue with a target of 14 workers in about 12 months.

Each job lost is more than just a number, said Robert McAllister during a rally held in April regarding the Intalco curtailment. McAllister is the secretary treasurer for the IAM Local Lodge.

“We have 700 hard-working Americans at our facility here at Intalco that represent families,” McAllister said. “These families are an integral part of this local community.”

Jason Swendt, vice president of the IAM Local Lodge, was able to pay for his daughter’s softball hobby and adopt a child because of his job at Intalco, he said at the rally. Stevie Day, another Intalco employee, found a job at Intalco at a tough point in her life.

“Finding a job that could financially support my family was very hard,” said Day in a Facebook video. “Then, Intalco gave me a second chance and the ability to financially see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

This financial light overflows into the community when aluminum workers and their families spend money at local restaurants and stores, said Michael Shepard, a commissioner for the Port of Bellingham. Every 50 jobs at the smelter supports about 63 other jobs throughout Whatcom County, according to a report by the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University.

The IAM, in partnership with Washington state representatives, Alcoa and strong support from the community, reopened Intalco 10 months after its 2001 curtailment due to high electricity prices, according to Farmer. Mobilization by the union and partners prevented the plant from curtailing three other times since then, he said.

“This one’s the big hitter,” said Farmer. “There’s no restart planned and I don’t anticipate one.”

Much of the union’s focus is on ensuring access to unemployment and other benefits and supporting those who will be laid off, according to Farmer.

Many of the occupations at the smelter go beyond the direct production of aluminum, such as environmental engineering and pollution monitoring. These will be lost in the curtailment as well.

In the plant’s early days, noxious emissions from Intalco impacted nearby wildlife and cattle. Fluoride emissions, a byproduct of producing aluminum, resulted in vegetation with high levels of the element. Animals that ate contaminated plants developed tooth and bone problems and had trouble eating, leading to a citizen lawsuit against the smelter.

Since then, Washington state has updated its emissions requirements. The smelter still releases perfluorocarbons (PFCs), greenhouse gases which trap up to 12,200 times as much energy in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This contributes heavily to Intalco’s status as the fifth highest greenhouse gas-emitting facility in the state.

Intalco recently kickstarted the process of reducing their PFCs with a goal of cutting total greenhouse gas emissions by 64%. However, this curtailment is causing these upgrades to be put on hold, said Andrew Wineke, media representative for the air quality program at the Washington State Department of Ecology.

The air above Intalco often appears smoky, according to Larry McCarter, a local pilot.

He often takes to the skies to photograph the haze from the smokestacks settling over the communities of Ferndale and Birch Bay from his personal plane. One time, he saw this haze drifting up into Canada.

“I just like to reveal what I see,” he said, “and common sense can tell you it ain’t right.”

He sent some aerial photos to the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Ecology in 2017. This helped bring the pollution to their attention, he said.

A subsequent three-year investigation found that the area around Intalco could exceed healthy levels of sulfur dioxide if left unchecked.

In 2017, Intalco emitted more sulfur dioxide than the adjacent Phillips 66 and British Petroleum oil refineries combined. This gas can worsen the effects of asthma and bronchitis and lead to lung infections.

McCarter is an advocate for keeping the smelter, but having a facility that produces less pollution.

Intalco made an agreement with the Department of Ecology to install a scrubber that would reduce these emissions by filtering them through water. The curtailment frees Intalco from this agreement.

Aluminum is used in everything from military aircrafts to ventilators that help fight COVID-19. The union is rallying its forces in Washington D.C. to find buyers and gain press coverage on this issue on the basis of the national security argument.

So far, none of these tactics are working, said Farmer.

“We’re on the road right now to not having any aluminum manufactured in the United States,” said Farmer. “This problem is much bigger than just Intalco.”