Last Northwest Alcoa Smelter Shutters – Ending Washington Aluminum Era
Alcoa’s former Wenatchee Works site also faces cleanup and potential sale to a private entity, highlighting ongoing transitions for former aluminum industrial sites across Washington.
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works aluminum smelter, idle since 2015, is a reminder of the industrial boom that once powered the Pacific Northwest, even as demolition elsewhere signals the region’s changing economic landscape.
Alcoa has begun tearing down its Intalco smelter near Ferndale, Wash., the last remaining aluminum smelter in the Northwest. The move ends any lingering hope of reviving aluminum production in the state and the hundreds of union jobs lost when the facility closed in 2020.
The Ferndale smelter is not the only Washington plant to shutter. Smelters once operated in Vancouver, Longview, Tacoma, Wenatchee and Spokane. The Wenatchee Works site, permanently closed in December 2021, shares a similar story: decades of high-energy industrial activity, followed by decline as electricity costs rose and metal prices fell.
The demolition at Intalco, quietly started last year, is about 45% complete, according to a company spokesperson. A multiyear cleanup will address soil and groundwater contamination from historic PCBs, petroleum products, and potentially fluorides, state officials said.
The Washington Department of Ecology released a draft cleanup plan in February and will hold a public webinar and hearing on April 8. Written comments will be accepted through April 15. Shingo Yamazaki, Ecology’s refinery and smelter unit supervisor, said many questions about contamination and remediation remain under investigation.
Alcoa plans to recycle materials where possible and remove debris offsite. The company aims to complete building demolition and silo removal by the end of this year, with soil backfill and regrading potentially extending into 2027.
Environmental advocates, including Bellingham-based RE Sources, note the smelters left behind significant contamination but see potential in redevelopment. “If it’s copacetic with the tribes, certainly we’d like to see more extensive clean energy development, and I think hydrogen is part of the conversation,” said Co-Executive Director Ander Russell.
Alcoa’s former Wenatchee Works site also faces cleanup and potential sale to a private entity, highlighting ongoing transitions for former aluminum industrial sites across Washington.
The regional aluminum industry flourished in the 1940s, fueled by cheap hydropower from Columbia River dams, at one point employing about 11,000 people and consuming enough electricity to power three cities the size of present-day Seattle for a year. As energy costs rose over the past 30 years, smelters closed one by one.
The demolition of Intalco and the lingering cleanup of Wenatchee mark the end of an era for Washington’s aluminum industry and the communities that once thrived around it.
Courtesy: www.kpq.com