Alcoa has just shut down the St. Croix alumina refinery while opening a new plant in Surinam. The upper management of the St. Croix plant has been relocated over there.
As the alumina plant has been in operation now since 1966, there is very much less space available for deposition of the red mud waste product on St. Croix where real estate prices have seen a relative increase and a limited quantity of industrial space. Our industrial land is more valuable than that in Surinam.
Surinam has much more available land, no U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and economies in the proximity of its bauxite mines. It isn't likely that we will see the plant reopen soon and so we should start thinking in terms of alternative reuse.
Alumina is no longer the best use of the property. West Indian Co. Ltd. President Ed Thomas' proposed cruise ship home port facility on St. Croix could go into the area no longer in use by Alcoa. There is also a power plant which could be expanded and retrofitted for oil to power the island. There is an existing steam plant which also produces water.
These last are things which could be utilized by WAPA. The process steam could be used in certain oil-related downstream activities. With hydrocarbon polymers the red mud could be used as filler for the manufacture of composite board for bathroom paneling and chemical lab tables. It will take a long time to clear off completely but bit by bit the land could be reused again.
