Environmental Law and Policy Clinic helps secure stronger permit to protect the Yadkin River from water contaminants
The clinic is collaborating with community members to measure pollution coming from a defunct aluminum smelting plant
During World War I, the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) took ownership of smelting operations in Badin, a company town founded in North Carolina’s Uwharrie Mountains by L’Aluminum Francaise. The success of the plant, powered by damming the adjacent Yadkin River, created jobs that built Badin’s population to 5,000 people. But 15 years after Alcoa’s Badin Works shuttered operations, residents say toxic levels of chemicals such as cyanide and fluoride continue to leach into waterways, contaminating sources of drinking water and recreation sites where people fish and swim.
In the fall of 2025, with help from Duke’s Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, the community achieved a victory when the state issued Alcoa a new multi-year permit for the old smelting site that requires stricter measurement and monitoring of polluting chemicals that run off the site through stormwater drains. That stormwater leaves through 12 discharge points, called outfalls, that empty into Badin Lake and Little Mountain Creek, sections of the Yadkin River which are used as water supply. The clinic is also conducting community-engaged research to independently test for contaminants at locations that the community has identified as places of concern.
“Alcoa will be testing more frequently for more pollutants and also be subject to more stringent standards to protect human health and the environment,” said clinic co-director Ryke Longest.
“There’s continuing work to be done, but this is a tangible victory we can point to after multiple years of advocacy. It felt good to get that done.”
The Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, one of 12 clinics at Duke Law, enrolls students from both the Law School and Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment who work on matters involving air and water quality, environmental justice, natural resources conservation, and other issues.
Under the supervision of Longest and Lecturing Fellow and Staff Scientist Dr. Nancy Lauer, for six semesters clinic students conducted research to support a public comment letter on behalf of a coalition of advocates including clinic client Yadkin Riverkeeper, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Concerned Citizens of West Badin, Southern Environmental Law Center, and North Carolina Environmental Justice Network.
Their work strengthened the permit, which the state issues in accordance with the Clean Water Act, the federal statute that protects surface waters from pollution.
“The clinic helped us to be more effective advocates for getting Alcoa to reduce the amount of contaminated stormwater they were putting into the river,” said Edgar Miller, executive director of Yadkin Riverkeeper.
“The documents we submitted to the state really, I think, brought a lot of credibility to our efforts to not only tighten up the permit, but to get the state to require additional monitoring,” Miller said.
“This facility sits at the center of a 19,000 square mile watershed, and it has the potential to contaminate everything downstream from it for future generations. So we've got to do something right now before it gets even worse.”
Clinic research to track Alcoa’s compliance with its existing permit was a big factor in successfully advocating stronger permit requirements, Miller said. Clinic members also brought scientific as well as legal expertise, which was instrumental in helping to navigate some of the technical issues, he said.
“The clinic was the first time I felt like I could use my chemical expertise to directly help an impacted community,” said Michelle Misselwitz, a PhD candidate at the Nicholas School who formerly worked as an analytical chemist focused on environmental and food safety testing.
“Working with community partners, gaining their trust, and conducting meaningful research that helps the community achieve their goals was a rewarding experience and cemented my desire to be involved in a mission-driven organization.”
Longest, who has worked on environmental issues related to the Badin plant for more than 15 years, called the permit “the best permit we’ve gotten so far, and it was hard fought.” He and Lauer note that it contains key provisions explicitly requested by the coalition:
- Increased sampling frequency of outfalls with a history of higher pollutant discharges
- Signage at outfalls near recreation areas notifying the public of wastewater discharge
- An effluent pollutant scan for several hundred “priority” pollutants not previously been measured at outfalls — “If you don’t look for something, you don't find it, so that's important,” Lauer said.
- Water quality measurements at outfalls with high discharges of previously unmonitored aluminum to help determine safe limits and whether it becomes more dangerous in combination with other chemical and pollutant discharges
At left: Residents of West Badin, former Alcoa employees, students from the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Clinic, and advocates from Yadkin Riverkeeper and the NC Environmental Justice Network tour the area around Alcoa’s former aluminum smelter site in Badin. Photo: Katarina Caskey, NC Environmental Justice Network
At right, above: Outfall 13 drains contaminated stormwater into Badin Lake less than 100 feet from a public swimming area. At right, below: Clinic students kayaking on Badin Lake to sample stormwater outfalls. All photos courtesy of Yadkin Riverkeeper.
An important aspect of the clinic’s work is restoring environmental justice to West Badin. Residents, organized as Concerned Citizens of West Badin, say they have suffered disparate harms including health problems from the plant and its disposal operations.
To address concerns residents expressed over lack of transparency by both Alcoa and the state, the clinic secured a $150,000 grant from The Duke Endowment to fund an independent investigation into sources of contamination. The clinic coordinated a community mapping project during which residents identified areas where they had witnessed waste dumping but haven’t been tested. They included former Alcoa employees who say they were told to deposit waste in locations outside of official dump sites. That waste, they say, included contaminated smelter waste known as spent potliner, industrial waste bricks and PCBs, highly toxic chemical compounds banned from production in the U.S. in 1979.
“These were people who lived that experience, who worked for Alcoa for many years and did the dumping, so it was critical to give the community that opportunity,” Miller said.
Clinic students are working with Yadkin Riverkeeper to collect and test water and soil samples for pollutants. The sampling data has already raised questions about potential dump sites that hadn’t yet been identified by the state, said Miller, who called the students’ contributions “invaluable.”
“I get emotional when I talk about the students, but there have been countless presentations, hearings, and community meetings where they come and just do an amazing job presenting whatever the issue of the day is, because there is always another issue,” Miller said.
“From a legal standpoint, the clinic is just very focused on what we need and presenting us with the facts and the different options that we can then use to decide what direction to go in. It’s been a really successful model for us, as environmental advocates, to have that legal and technical expertise to back us up.”
For Chloe Wetzler JD/MEM ’27, the work underscored the complexity of the field she plans to enter, noting that students needed to understand not only the specifics of the chemical contaminants being discharged, but also the state’s constraints, relevant federal laws and guidance, and the community’s goals. And while not all the requested changes were incorporated in the final permit, it was still satisfying to see the direct impact of the clinic’s and partners’ work.
“This case was a great window into what environmental law will look like in my future, where an understanding of the science is crucial, but so is an awareness of the legal and regulatory landscape,” Wetzler said.
“It was meaningful to meet the people who have been fighting so hard, and for so many years, to fight pollution threatening their community. I am excited that we have achieved steps in the right direction, not only because it will directly improve water quality in the area, but also because it also helps sustain the movement and show everyone involved that their hard work has not been in vain.”
