Inola aluminum smelter fight: Courts grant Drummond motion, rule on petitions

ROGERS COUNTY, Okla. — Sept. 3 proved to be one of the busiest days yet in the permit application, petitions against, and lawsuits involving the proposed Inola aluminum smelter project.

The Rogers County Election Board announced that a grand jury petition brought by neighbors on Aug. 26 failed to reach the needed amount of verified signatures by about a thousand voters.

However, a City of Inola challenge against a different citizen-led petition failed, meaning a city-wide referendum on permitting the smelter can reportedly proceed for a future election.

• Previous coverage>>> Inola residents file federal suit over aluminum smelter plans

Additionally, the U.S. District Court of Northern Oklahoma ordered a lawsuit brought by Attorney General Gentner Drummond back to the Rogers County Courthouse as a state case.

A press release from the attorney general's office reported "the defendants failed to establish substantial federal question jurisdiction. The federal court’s order is final and cannot be appealed. Drummond filed a motion to remand last month."

• See also>>> Oklahoma AG: Proposed smelting project 'doesn't belong' in Inola

The attorney general issued a statement in response:

In 2 News Oklahoma's first one-on-one interview with an aluminum smelting executive involved in the project, the news of the court ruling in favor of Drummond was told to Century Aluminum Senior Vice President of Strategy, Matt Aboud, mid-interview.

"We're gonna work with (the attorney general's) office whether it stays in federal court or was remanded back to Oklahoma court," Aboud said. "Either way, we're going to address the issues in the case and we look forward to working with him and resolving this in a positive way.”

The UAE-based emirates global aluminum has a 60-40 partnership with Century Aluminum for the Inola smelter. That entity is called Oklahoma Primary Aluminum (OPA).

• WATCH IN FULL: Century Aluminum executive speaks with 2 News about Inola smelter plans
  
  Century Aluminum executive speaks with 2 News about Inola smelter plans

OPA also issued an updated estimate Sept. 3 on how much potline fluoride its smelter would emit, with a cap at .64 pounds per metric ton of aluminum produced, 37% less than its original proposal submitted to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). That would mean an emission of around 225,000 metric tons of fluoride a year.

“We went back and did more engineering and came back with a new draft proposal," Aboud said. "So, you know, look, our responsibility is to build this facility using the best available and latest technologies, and it's not just, like, one thing. It's a suite of technologies, it's a suite of operating procedures. And then we have to demonstrate through the science that the new resulting concentration is safe. Ultimately, that's going to be decided on by the Oklahoma DEQ. They are the regulator, they will be the ones that decide, and they won't issue us a permit if they decide that this isn't safe.”