This is the latest in a lawsuit the attorney general's office filed against the companies behind the smelter in June. The suit aims to address harmful effects of the smelter on nearby residents. It was initially filed in Rogers County District Court (part of Oklahoma's court system) but was moved to federal court at the request of the defendants.
If the new motion is granted, it would stop Oklahoma Primary Aluminum from beginning or continuing construction on the smelter until the court decides the lawsuit. That would include preparing the site, altering the land or performing foundation work.
Drummond's office argues that the injunction is particularly needed after the lawsuit was moved to the Northern District Court of Oklahoma.
"The defendants clearly removed the case to federal court with a delay in mind," a spokesperson for the Office of the Attorney General wrote in an email. "Because of McGirt, there is a backlog of cases in the Northern District of Oklahoma. Further, the defendants are trying to avoid the case being decided by the citizens of Rogers County."
Oklahoma Primary Aluminum issued a statement saying the motion contained "public mischaracterizations that overlook scientific and regulatory facts."
"The company is fully committed to constructing a state-of-the-art, environmentally safe facility that will generate economic growth for Rogers County while operating under the strict oversight of state and federal regulators," the statement said.
Along with the motion, Drummond's office filed an expert opinion from environmental consultant Ranajit Sahu.
"Not only will the proposed smelter be the largest smelter by production (aluminum tons per year) in the U.S. once it is built, it will also have the highest emissions of a wide range of pollutants," Sahu wrote.
Those include nearly 90,000 tons of carbon monoxide and around 300 tons of nitrous oxides each year, among other pollutant gases.
Inola residents and nearby landowners have expressed particular concern about the fluoride compounds produced during primary aluminum smelting. These chemicals can settle on nearby forage, creating high enough contamination levels to harm livestock.
"The resulting disease, fluorosis, has destroyed herds downwind of aluminum smelters before," the motion reads. "These are the documented results of operating a primary aluminum smelter at the emission levels [the companies behind the smelter] themselves project."
In his testimony, Sahu noted the air pollutant estimations provided in the application are "very high." He also said he suspects the pollutant numbers would be higher in reality, because the company's estimations are based on "very optimistic assumptions" about the plant's ability to capture and control emissions.
For example, the application says 99-100% of fluoride emissions will be captured before they leave the plant, and 99.96% of the uncaptured emissions would be controlled.
Sahu said those capture and control estimates aren't backed up by specific engineering plans. If those estimates are even slightly off, the fluoride emissions could be much higher than expected.
In their statement, Oklahoma Primary Aluminum pointed out that their estimate falls well below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's limit for total fluoride emissions for primary aluminum production facilities.
Still, nearby farmers and ranchers are concerned about what those emissions could mean for Inola.
"You literally want to take a plant that's going to poison hay and put it in the hay capital of the world," one area resident told the Inola town council at a meeting on June 28. "How dumb are you?"
After hours of public comment at that meeting, the Inola town council passed a 60-day moratorium on construction at the proposed smelter site. But that pause will expire at the end of August.
"When it lapses," Sahu wrote, "nothing will stand between Defendants and groundbreaking except a court order."
Aside from concerns about smelter operations, the motion also suggests the main company behind the project could pose risks to national security.
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is a state-owned company from the United Arab Emirates. EGA owns a 60% stake in Oklahoma Primary Aluminum, the company behind the smelter in Inola; the other 40% is owned by U.S.-based private company Century Aluminum.
In filings with the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission earlier this year, Century Aluminum disclosed that its largest shareholder has business deals with the Iranian government. EGA has strong business ties to China, according to the motion for an injunction.
"Yet [the companies] never disclosed this information to Oklahomans, even as they asked Oklahoma's agricultural heartland to absorb the risks of their project," the motion reads.
The smelter is expected to double primary aluminum production in the United States and create thousands of jobs in Inola. It has support from Gov. Kevin Stitt, the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the Trump administration.
The facility would be within the Muscogee Nation's reservation lands. The Muscogee National Council unanimously approved a resolution in July opposing any aluminum smelting within its boundaries.
The site also lies just miles away from the edge of Cherokee Nation's reservation. Cherokee Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. issued a statement last week to express concerns about the smelter and call for tribal consultation on the project.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
