High water marks: at Badin Lake, Alcoa has shown that industry can use - and not abuse - a river.

• Author: Davis, Lisa
• Position: Aluminum Company of America

Last Fourth of July, Badin Lake attracted hordes of fun seekers who came to sun themselves on its pebbled beach, drop lines for largemouth bass and pull skiers behind power boats near its tree-lined shores.

As the sun started to set, they gathered on the banks and in their boats to hear U.S. Rep. Bill Hefner sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic and America the Beautiful, his voice amplified by a public-address system. Then the Stanly County Singing Americans launched into their I Love America cantata.

Just as darkness began to fall, a soloist began the national anthem. Spotlights cut to a flagpole, where a National Guardsman raised the American flag. As the soloist belted out "And the rockets' red glare," fireworks began to explode. For half an hour, bright bursts of light colored the sky over the lake. But the final fireworks display was on the shore: the name "Alcoa" in shimmering red, white and blue.

It's not hard to figure out who owns this lake.

Aluminum Company of America's Badin Works sprawls over about 123 acres at its southern tip. Over the past 75 years, the company has built four dams on the Yadkin River, harnessing its power to run its aluminum smelter and turning a 38-mile stretch into a chain of tranquil reservoirs.

Alcoa, which employs about 635 at its smelting and power plants, is the largest taxpayer in Stanly and Montgomery counties, which split Badin Lake. Damming the river has it in a business that has nothing to do with aluminum - as the largest recreation provider for four counties. About 1.5 million a year sun, swim and fish on its reservoirs; almost half go to Badin Lake.

Because the federal government, many years ago, gave Alcoa access to the equivalent of millions of dollars in free power, its license to operate requires Alcoa to protect the river and provide public access, free of charge. "We've trusted you with our river," the government said. "Take care of it." And that's just what the company has done.

Call it a case of enlightened self-interest. But Alcoa has used the river without using it to death.

Twenty or 25 years ago, it was really still very much wide open and uncontrolled," says Ed Listerman, Alcoa's property administrator. It owns 25,000 acres of river and lakes and 14,000 acres of land, 3,000 of it near Badin Lake and in the town of Badin, which surrounds Alcoa.

"People went wherever they wanted to go and did whatever they wanted to do,' Listerman says. They cut firewood on Alcoa land and dumped trash. Some built shanties for pigs. No designated swim or boat-launch areas existed, and many piers were shoddy.

Today, it's a different story. Alcoa closed some land - near dams, for instance - and opened more than 20 public-access areas around its reservoirs. It set up three major swim areas and carted in pebbles and sand for beaches. Owners of private land along the shore now must meet strict criteria for building piers and installing electricity.

In the early'70s, Alcoa's recreational and land-management budget was next to nothing. This year, it will be close to a half-million dollars, spent on such things as picnic tables, a community newsletter, promoting canoe races and bass tournaments, putting up handrails, ramps and piers and developing bank fishing.

The company also works with state agencies and conservation groups to improve the habitat of wildlife such as deer, turkey and quail. And through its forestry program, more...