By:  Eric Reutebuch, Lake Watch President
 Appeared in Lake Magazine, January 2022 Edition

I was shocked and dismayed several weeks ago to learn that a Coosa County graphite mining venture I’d been hearing about was going to build their processing plant in Kellyton, just west of Alexander City, and planned to pump their industrial wastewater to Alexander City for discharge into our Treasured Lake. After being alerted to this by none other than the Eagle-eye Campbells (Matt and Ann), we’ve been taking a crash course on graphite mining and processing. That’s difficult because currently there are zero graphite processing plants in the U.S.

Most of the world’s graphite comes from China. As you may know, China is not known for its environmental stewardship. The following article even deepened our concerns about graphite production coming to our area – a real environmental horror story: Google ‘graphite mining pollution in China.’

The mining operation is going to be over in the Rockford area, about 20 miles west of Alexander City in Coosa County. Alabama Graphite Products, a subsidiary of Westwater Resources, Inc., acquired mineral rights to more than 43,000 acres northwest of Rockford in Coosa County several years ago. Mining operations are scheduled to start in 2028. The processing plant is slated to begin processing graphite ore shipped in from another source in 2023.

On the positive side, the proposed plant will be the first of its kind in the U.S. and will provide a domestic source of graphite to meet the expanding demand for lithium ion batteries. These batteries require a lot more graphite than lithium to manufacture. We all love our cellphones, laptops, cordless lawncare tools, power tools and hybrid/electric vehicles (my Kia Niro SUV is great ~ 50 miles per gallon); thus, it is highly advantageous to have domestic sources of lithium ion battery components. 

To assess possible impacts to our beloved lake, we gathered all the graphite mining articles we got via Google, contacted professors at AU and poured through ADEM and EPA regulations, which had nothing on graphite processing as, until now, it hasn’t existed in the U.S. We contacted Alexander City and set up a meeting to discuss our concerns.

Mayor Baird and Gerard Brewer, the city engineer, responded to Lake Watch’s concerns and set up a meeting with city engineers, the mining company, Alabama Graphite Products and Jacobs Engineering. We met on the first of December at the Alexander City Municipal Complex. Our Lake Watch Legal Committee – Matt Campbell, Bill Butler, Dick Bronson, Jesse Cunningham and I – submitted a list of questions that addressed our concerns. We were accompanied by the Lake Martin Homeowners and Boat Owners president, Harry DeNegre. We were particularly concerned about this mining waste negatively impacting the lake. 

Representatives from Alabama Graphite Products presented detailed information on the processing of the graphite ore. Their method is a new, more environmentally friendly method, which they are in the process of patenting. They also presented information as to the treatment of their wastewater. To our relief, they will have a wastewater pretreatment plant onsite. The pretreatment will neutralize the wastewater, filter it and recycle processing chemicals before it is pumped to the Alexander City Sugar Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The graphite wastewater pretreatment plant requires a State Indirect Discharge permit from Alabama Department of Environmental Management before it is allowed to operate. This was also good news, since the SID permit requires that all contaminants in the wastewater must be within safe limits. Thus, the wastewater that will be pumped to the Sugar Creek treatment plant will be safe, assuming the permit requirements are met, and the wastewater will not adversely impact the lake. The permit must be renewed every five years or when changes are made to the processing facility. Overall, good news.

We also learned about the transport pipe system, which is being designed by Jacobs Engineering, formerly CH2M Hill. They have provided engineering services to the city since 1975. They informed us that there is no inter-basin transfer of water, as although the Kellyton graphite plant is in the eastern-most part of the Coosa Basin, the processing water comes from Alexander City and the wastewater returns to the city, which is in the Tallapoosa Basin. They also informed us that the volume of wastewater from the graphite plant will be relatively small, about 0.17 million gallons per day; whereas, the Sugar Creek plant has several mgds of its 8.5 mgd capacity currently unused.

We left feeling grateful to Mayor Baird and the City for the opportunity to voice our concerns and get answers. We also were especially grateful that the answers we got were what we wanted to hear : Onsite pretreatment that will be regulated to meet water quality standards.

We will continue to monitor this new development and thoroughly examine the graphite processing plant SID permit when it is issued to verify that no bad pollutants will come into Lake Martin. We’ll keep you posted. And as usual, we’d love to have you come aboard – visit www.lakewatch.org for info on how to join Lake Watch Lake Martin

Eric Reutebuch is president of Lake Watch Lake Martin