History

Wood Quality Control, Inc. (WQC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) was created in response to a request from the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) after that agency began receiving a steadily increasing number of complaints from cooperative borrowers about the poor performance of their treated wood poles. Several years of discussion ensued between REA, NRECA and a number of cooperative managers, leading to the WQC program beginning operation in October 1982.

Today, more than 10 million WQC poles and 8 million WQC cross-arm have been installed in utility lines throughout the United States and in electrification programs abroad.