Hundreds celebrate 60th anniversary of Alcoa’s Wenatchee smelter

Hundreds of people took a lengthy stroll through Alcoa’s Wenatchee Works smelter Saturday to see the inner workings of one of North Central Washington’s largest employers.

They dipped their hands in alumina — the white liquid-looking raw material used to make aluminum — and was surprised when their hands came out dry.

They watched workers manning pots that have poured out some 16.7 billion pounds of aluminum ingots over the past six decades.

And, they were treated to Blue Mist purified water served in cans (aluminum, of course), artistically shaped aluminum foil sculptures, and cake decorated with the logos of Alcoa and Washington Aluminum Trades Council.

Saturday’s 60th anniversary event wasn’t the first time Alcoa has opened its doors to the public for tours and celebrations. But it was definitely the best attended in at least two decades. More than 2,000 people attended. “Just about everybody in Wenatchee has some connection to Alcoa,” said Bob Wilt, former vice president and manager at Wenatchee Works, and now Alcoa’s president of U.S. primary products, responsible for all of the smelters operating in the country. “I think it’s great for the community to get a chance to see it.”

That event was attended mostly by workers who came to celebrate after more than three years of uncertainty. During that time, some 400 workers remained on the payroll and maintained the plant or worked as volunteers in the community.

Wilt said Wenatchee Works held a big celebration for its 60th anniversary partly because they missed out on their 50th.

But now, there’s plenty to celebrate.

Survival is one reason. “There used to be 11 smelters operating in the Northwest, and now there are two,” Wilt said. Wenatchee Works is one. The other is Alcoa’s Intalco Works in Ferndale.

What you normally see worn on worker’s feet in the pot rooms at Alcoa, protected steel-toed work boots, were replaced by red flats by Danely Gonzales, 4, Wenatchee, whose father works at the plant.

In addition, despite its age, Wenatchee Works is the most efficient, lowest cost plant that Alcoa operates. That’s a tribute to the high competency of its workers, Wilt said, and to its ongoing agreement with the Chelan County PUD. Before reopening, Alcoa renegotiated a plan to provide Wenatchee Works with 26 percent of the power from Rocky Reach and Rock Island Dams through 2028.

“We’d like to thank the community for 60 years of clean, renewable hydropower that they’ve elected to put to use through the production of aluminum,” he said.