Our Environmental Efforts

Sustainability

We aim to prepare formerly operated locations to be reused or redeveloped by new operators and users. While this objective can extend the timeframe and cost needed to close a site, it also can help to achieve positive environmental and social outcomes that are in line with industry best practices. We continuously maintain our sites throughout their curtailment and closure life cycles – both in the midst of demolition and remediation activities and following their completion. Maintenance activities are coupled with monitoring activities that ensure support of the site’s best and highest uses and compliance with environmental regulatory standards.

Superfund

Releases from activities at the facilities resulted in contamination of groundwater, soil and sediment in Lavaca Bay. State investigations conducted by the Texas Department of Health found elevated mercury levels in oysters and crabs and portions of Lavaca Bay were closed to keeping of finfish and crabs in 1988. The U.S. EPA added the site to the National Priorities List (NPL) in 1994 and selected the remedy for the site in 2001. Cleanup activities led by Alcoa include extraction and treatment of groundwater, relocation and stabilization of contaminated material on Dredge Island, sediment dredging with disposal at Dredge Island, waste capping, monitored natural recovery of sediment in Lavaca Bay, monitoring of sediment, fish and shellfish, and the removal of marsh vegetation and sediment from locations within the Closed Area. In 2000, a closed part of Cox Bay reopened after mercury levels in finfish and crabs decreased to an acceptable level. Commercial and recreation activities continue in Lavaca Bay. The area is known for its navigable waterways and its deep-water port. Lavaca Bay offers boat ramps, piers, docks and bait shops that support recreational fishing. These facilities also support commercial shrimping, fishing, crabbing and oystering. The bay is an ecological resource, providing habitat for aquatic animals and birds. Alcoa takes very seriously its commitment to execute the U.S. EPA remedy for mitigation of contamination at the site.

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Residue Disposal Areas

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) holds regulatory authority governing portions of the site not currently overseen by the EPA as part of the Superfund area.


TSDHS

The Texas Department of Health Services (TDSHS) has responded to mercury contamination in Lavaca Bay since the 1970s and has provided input and guidance throughout the life of the Alcoa Superfund site:  

TDSHS has sampled indicator species since 1970 and found elevated mercury levels to be present. In 1988, TDSHS closed portions of Lavaca Bay in the area of the Alcoa plant to retention of finfish and crabs due to the contamination. 

Alcoa has led cleanup efforts, including:

  • Extracting and treating groundwater 
  • Stabilizing and relocating contaminated material on Dredge Island 
  • Dredging sediment and disposing of it on Dredge Island 
  • Capping waste 
  • Monitoring the natural recovery of sediment in Lavaca Bay 
  • Monitoring fish, shellfish, and sediment 

In 2000, TDSHS reopened a closed section of Cox Bay noting mercury levels in crabs and finfish decreased to an acceptable level. 

TDSHS is expected to eventually remove the Fish Closure Order, which would allow people to keep fish and shellfish from all areas of Lavaca Bay:  Fishing Advisories, Bans, and FAQs about Bodies of Water-Seafood and Aquatic Life from Texas DSHS 

USACE

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued permits to Alcoa Point Comfort since the facility’s establishment in 1948. These permits authorize activities such as dredging, construction of docks and associated works, dredge material placement, fill placement, and pipeline installation and replacement in and around Lavaca Bay.