Local
Inola smelter records could be due before judge rules on lawsuit
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond is asking a Rogers County judge to order Century Aluminum and Aluminum Oklahoma to turn over emissions and project records while their bid to dismiss his lawsuit is pending. The request could make information about the proposed plant public before construction potentially begins and ahead of an April 2027 vote on a local smelting ban.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond wants two companies planning an aluminum smelter near Inola to provide records about expected emissions and the project before a judge rules on their effort to dismiss his lawsuit.
In a motion filed Oct. 22 in Rogers County, Drummond asked the court to let evidence-gathering proceed while Century Aluminum Company and Aluminum Oklahoma’s motion to dismiss remains pending. The companies oppose his request.
Under the usual schedule described in the motion, the companies’ 30-day deadline to respond to written evidence requests would not begin until they formally answer the lawsuit. Their answer is due 20 days after the court rules on the dismissal motion, for which no decision date has been set.
Drummond says the records are important because the companies have challenged his case as speculative while holding the information that could clarify the plant’s potential effects. “They are the only ones holding the data that would show what this smelter will release into the air and onto the land around Inola,” he said.
If the judge grants the motion, the companies would have 30 days to provide records supporting their emissions estimates, as well as material on engineering, ownership, financing and compliance at their other smelters.
Drummond sued in June over potential impacts on residents, livestock and natural resources. The companies moved the case to federal court and argued that fluoride emissions listed in their permit application represented a “theoretical maximum.” The federal court returned the case to Rogers County in September.
The companies have indicated construction could begin by the end of 2026, depending on engineering work and a power-supply agreement. Inola is under a moratorium on heavy industrial construction through April 7, 2027, when voters are scheduled to decide on a proposed ban on aluminum smelting.
The Rogers County judge has not announced when a decision on Drummond’s request or the companies’ dismissal motion will come.