Alcoa

Perth, Australia: In 2004, a local magistrate imposed a $60,000 fine on Alcoa for polluting the air around its Wagerup refinery. Alcoa pleaded guilty to the pollution charge that related to Bauxite residue dust blowing over Wagerup and Yarloop, south of Perth, in November 2002. (ABC News, December 23, 2004)

In 1994, Alcoa was ordered to pay just under $1 million for the damage its mining operations did to the house of a resident in the nearby Hayes, Jamaica, community. Since the case took almost 12 years to wind its way through the legal system, 59 other residents waiting the decision were dismayed to learn that the company expected to fight each claim, one by one. The case ended on March 20, 2000 when the United Kingdom Privy Council, Jamaica's highest legal authority, ordered the company to pay up the $938,400 that Supreme Court judge, Neville Theobalds, ordered them to pay on February 15, 1995, after hearing the case the year before. (Pat Roxborough, "Alcoa puts damper on residents' claims," Observer, 1/17/2002)

In 2002, Alcoa Inc. was ordered to pay $550,000 to settle a federal lawsuit alleging the aluminum maker's aerospace products plant violated water pollution limits near it's plant in Lafayette, Indiana. (U.S. Water News Online February 2002)

In 2006, Public Agenda (ACCRA) reported that Alcoa was pressing for permission to mine bauxite in the Atewa Forest Reserve in Ghana. A preliminary biodiversity survey by 22 scientists working for Conservation International (CI), taken up at ALCOA's request, found that the reserve has common and endangered species of great significance to local communities, streams used for drinking water, acacia trees legally harvested for chewing sticks by local women for sale.

Professor Alfred Oteng Yeboah, Deputy Director-General of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research who briefed the press on the outcome of the study, stressed that "as a nation, we do not appear to have standards as far as environmental decisions are concerned."

According to Conservation International (CI), the Atewa Forest Reserve is considered one of eight biodiversity hotspots in Africa - a hub of rare and unique species. A recent study conducted by CI's Ghana office revealed that Atewa is home to many species of flora and fauna originally thought to be extinct.

Brazil: Local papers report that Alcoa is interested in the construction of the largest hydroelectric complex -- called the Belo Monte Plant -- located on the Xingu River in Para State. The plant would have a 11,182 MW capacity, and would provide enough electricity to support the construction of a new aluminium factory in Brazil.

ALCOA is already participating in other hydroelectric plants: Machadinho (1.140 MW), Barra Grande (708 MW - scheduled to go online in the second semester of 2005), Pai Querê (292 MW), Estreito (1.087 MW) and Serra do Facão (210 MW). (Source: "ALCOA's interest in the Belo Monte construction." O Estado de S. Paulo, 6/15/2004)