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Ten Northwest Aluminum Smelters Employment

by Reed Burkholder
Breaching Dams to Save Idaho's Salmon & Steelhead - March 14, 1996

Eight aluminum companies purchase very large amounts of electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration, 25.8 million megawatt hours in 1991. This amount is the equivalent of the total generation of 11 dams the size of Lower Granite.

The ten aluminum smelters in the Northwest employ about 6,300 people but use the equivalent of all the electrical output of Lower Granite, Little Goose, Lower Monumental, Ice Harbor, and John Day dams plus 72% of the output of McNary as well.

In contrast, 6,300 folks like myself who work out of our homes and use an average residential amount of power, use the equivalent of just 2% of the output of Lower Granite Dam.

How many people are employed by the 10 Northwest aluminum smelters?

Year
Built		   Jobs
19941		 Jobs
19962		 BPA
Energy
1940 Vanalco, Vancouver, Washington 700 670
1941 Reynolds (Alcoa), Longview, Washington 900 795 417 MW
1942 Reynolds (Alcoa), Troutdale(Portland), Oregon 120 150 279 MW
1942 Kaiser, Mead(Spokane), Washington 1,072 950 390 MW
1943 Kaiser, Tacoma, Washington 316 360 140 MW
1952 Alcoa, Wenatchee, Washington 740 592 428 MW
1955 Northwest Aluminum, The Dalles, Oregon 471 500 167 MW
1955 Glencore, Columbia Falls, Montana 700 578 324 MW
1966 Intalco (Alcoa), Ferndale, Washington 1,150 1,100 457 MW
1970 Northwest Aluminum, Goldendale, Washington 650 600 317 MW
  total 6,819 6,295 2,919 MW

1 source: "Northwest Aluminum Approaches Meltdown", article by Wayne Thompson published February 6, 1994 in the Sunday Oregonian
2 source: phone inquiries by Reed Burkholder March 13-14, 1996

Reed Burkholder
Ten Northwest Aluminum Smelters Employment
Breaching Dams to Save Idaho's Salmon and Steelhead - March 14, 1996

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