Demolition of last Northwest aluminum smelter marks end of era

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster):  Aluminum maker Alcoa has started to demolish its sprawling Intalco smelter west of Ferndale. The multiyear demolition and cleanup project snuffs out any lingering hopes of reviving aluminum production in Washington and bringing back the hundreds of union jobs that disappeared when the smelter shut down in 2020.

The demolition also represents the curtain coming down on an industrial era in the Pacific Northwest. The Alcoa Intalco smelter was the last one standing of what were once 10 thrumming, energy-gobbling aluminum factories spread across the region.

Alcoa made no public announcement when it began the Intalco smelter demolition sometime last year. A company spokesperson confirmed the teardown is now well underway when queried this past week by Salish Current.

“We’re approximately 45% complete at this time,” the spokesperson said via email.

In late February, the state Department of Ecology published a long-awaited draft cleanup roadmap for the closed smelter. Ecology has tentatively scheduled an online webinar and public hearing for April 8 about the demolition and cleanup plan. The agency will also accept written public comments through April 15.

The Pacific Northwest aluminum industry arose in the 1940s after federal dams harnessed the Columbia River to produce a surplus of cheap electricity.

“Over time, the industry grew to employ around 11,000 people in the Northwest and consume 3,150 average annual megawatts of electricity, enough to light three cities the size of present-day Seattle for a year,” wrote Paul Harrison in a brief history of aluminum making in this region posted by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council.

But when the hydropower surplus gradually turned to scarcity beginning three decades ago, electricity prices increased and the vast aluminum smelters closed down one by one.

The Ferndale smelter was the next to last to open — in 1966 — and the last to shut down. Its forerunners spread out in Washington from Vancouver to Longview, Tacoma, Wenatchee and Spokane, and in Troutdale, Oregon, and Columbia Falls, Montana, as well as others. The massive plants churned out rods and ingots which would go on to be shaped into everything from soda cans to Boeing airplanes.

On the jobs review website Indeed, Intalco pot line operators described the work on the cavernous smelting lines as hot, dirty and physically demanding. They complained about long hours but praised the pay and the workplace
camaraderie.

Alcoa mothballed its Whatcom County smelter in 2020 during a period of falling metal prices and later said the steep cost of needed equipment modernization precluded restart. The following year, Blue Wolf Capital offered to revive the smelter to make “green” aluminum with cut-rate hydropower, but that plan faltered when the requisite power could not be procured.

In 2023, Alcoa announced it had signed a contract to sell the 1,600-acre Intalco smelter site to Calgary-based energy company AltaGas. However, most of the property remains in Alcoa’s hands today pending the completion of the complex demolition and pollution cleanup.

 Courtesy: www.thenorthernlight.com