CFAC closure means end of an era

It really was no surprise, but the official word last week that Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. was permanently closed still provided the element of finality.

The plant has been shuttered since 2009. Although since then there was scattered talk about reopening, most people knew the handwriting was figuratively on the potroom walls: CFAC was dead.

Market forces — the cost of raw materials, global competition from more modern facilities, power rates and depressed aluminum prices — proved too daunting for the aluminum plant to be revived.

The official notice concludes a long and storied history for the aluminum reduction facility northeast of Columbia Falls.

From the time the first aluminum ingots were poured in 1955 until the pots went cold for the last time five years ago, the plant had an outsized role in the Flathead Valley and particularly Columbia Falls.

For many years it was the largest employer in the valley, and its paychecks supported thousands of families.

Columbia Falls proudly declared itself “the industrial hub of the Flathead Valley” and the aluminum plant — in its many iterations from Anaconda to Atlantic Richfield to Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. to Glencore — was a big part of that.

Consider that at the height of its success, the plant and its workers (more than 1,200 in the glory days) took in 479,000 tons of raw material and produced 180,000 tons of aluminum a year.

The aluminum plant was not just a workplace — it also played a key role in the social and economic fabric of the Columbia Falls area.

Everything from sponsorships of youth baseball teams to donations to civic organizations poured from the plant. And benefits such as the summer work program where college students could earn big money were part of the legacy of the plant.

One former worker contacted the Inter Lake last week with a novel idea: He would like former workers to be allowed a final walk-through of the plant before it’s demolished.

We think that would be a fitting way for people to say goodbye to a place that was an economic mainstay in the Flathead Valley for almost six decades.

The next chapter in CFAC’s history is likely to be written by lawyers and environmental experts engaged in a tug of war over how to clean up the industrial site.

We hope that effort is not overly prolonged and the land will be available for new uses in a reasonable time frame.

Until then, farewell, CFAC.