The $US1.5 billion project slated for the Chatham/Cap-de-Ville area envisions a 341,000 metric-tons-per-year aluminum smelter, an anode plant, and a cast house. Alcoa, the world's leading producer of aluminum, is promoting the project as a boon to local employment and other community benefits...Cedros Peninsula United, a local organization opposing Alcoa's proposed smelter, charges that the project will hurt villages along the peninsular: It will displace 100 families, release emissions harmful to health and the environment, pose occupational safety hazards, and diminish bio-diversity. The group has also raised fears that the smelters will create electromagnetic fields (EMF). EMF have proven controversial at China's state-run aluminum smelters in Nanshan and Shandong, and at a facility that Alcoa operates in Sao Luis, Brazil...On July 22, Alcoa chose Bechtel as its primary partner in conducting feasibility studies for the proposed smelter. [also refers to Kaiser Aluminum]