The record

Six documented risks.

Sourced from the 300-page PSD air permit application, published scientific literature, and the operating history of comparable facilities. Every claim here is one you can check.

Fluoride proposal reviewed September 14, 2026. The revised cap is reported in KJRH's September 3 coverage. Consult DEQ's project record for application documents and review status. Historical estimates below are not predictions for a permitted facility.

Air

0.64 lb

proposed potline fluoride cap per metric ton of aluminum

—KJRH reports a September 3 proposal reducing the potline fluoride cap by 37%. This is not an approved permit or an annual whole-facility emissions total.
—An August expert declaration cited 425 tons/year of fluoride under the earlier proposal. Total fluoride must not be labeled entirely as hydrogen fluoride.
—Nitrogen oxides at ~316.2 tons/year, plus sulfur dioxide and hazardous air pollutants.
—Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) carrying heavy metals.
—Requires a PSD permit from ODEQ and EPA Region 6 — both take public comment.

Water

1.5M tons

of alumina powder, by barge, annually

—The facility sits directly on the Verdigris River.
—Alumina is a metallic dust: respiratory irritant to people, gill-clogging to fish.
—Fluoride bioaccumulates through the aquatic food chain.
—Mussels, fish, and the river’s whole ecology absorb the difference.

Cattle & agriculture

90%+

of cattle fluoride exposure is dietary

—Fluoride deposits irreversibly in bone; a cow eats 50+ lbs of forage daily.
—Dental fluorosis: mottled enamel, rapid wear, reduced feed intake.
—Skeletal fluorosis: lameness, deformity, stunted growth, reproductive failure.
—Cornwall Island, 1979: ~300 tons/year collapsed every herd within five miles.

Traffic & noise

24 / 7

continuous industrial operation

—17+ exhaust stacks running without pause, day and night.
—Over 1,000 additional barges a year on the Verdigris.
—Heavy truck traffic on roads built for grain and cattle.
—Sets the precedent for an industrial park where farmland is now.

The grid

1,000 MW

of continuous demand on Oklahoma power

—A single facility drawing more than many Oklahoma cities combined.
—PSO is the primary regional provider and would carry the load.
—Grid reliability and residential rates are both exposed.
—The cost of serving that load can land on ordinary ratepayers.

The region

Green Country

not just Inola, not just Rogers County

—Prevailing winds carry emissions toward Claremore, Pryor, Broken Arrow, Coweta, and Tulsa.
—From the hay capital of the world to the pollution capital of Oklahoma.
—Regional air quality is a shared asset that no single town consented to spend.
—Two thirds of a million people live within thirty miles of the stacks.

The precedent

This has already happened once.

In 1979, an aluminum smelter on Cornwall Island released roughly 300 tons of fluoride a year. Within five miles, cattle herds collapsed — skeletal fluorosis, lameness, tooth loss, starvation. That historical case raises questions about forage exposure, but it does not establish the outcome at Inola. The revised September proposal cannot be compared with it using the earlier annual estimate.

Cornwall Island, 1979~300 t/yr

Complete herd collapse within a five-mile radius. Documented, litigated, settled.

Inola, August estimate~425 t/yr

Historical estimate cited in the August expert declaration, before the September potline-cap revision. It is not the current proposed annual total; no revised whole-facility total is asserted here.

Exposure route

Over 90% of a cow’s fluoride intake is dietary. A cow eats 50+ lbs of forage a day, off ground the plume settles on.

Accumulation

Fluoride deposits irreversibly in bone and teeth. There is no treatment and no way to unwind it.

Outcome

Mottled enamel and rapid wear, then lameness, deformity, stunted growth, reproductive failure.

None of this was hidden. It was simply rushed.

Twenty-three days from the first public notice to an approved project plan — and a bill of tax incentives written in between.

See how it happened →