Plant cleanup still a matter of debate

U.S. Congressman Ryan Zinke brought along members of the local media for a tour of Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. on Tuesday, using the opportunity to reiterate his opposition to the shuttered plant’s listing as a federal Superfund site.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to list CFAC as a Superfund site has been a contentious issue in the community for nearly a year.

A Superfund “alternative” listing for the CFAC site is still a possibility, but EPA officials say that determination won’t happen until this fall at the earliest. It would involve a nearly identical process to remediation under a Superfund designation, but without the label.

U.S. Rep. Zinke, R-Mont., didn’t say whether he would support the alternative designation but noted that he wants the state environmental agency to continue taking the lead on the cleanup process.

“It needs to be cleaned up in the fastest and most expeditious way,” Zinke said. “Ideally, you’d want the state to be the lead and force industry to do their part.”

Comparing it to Libby’s struggle to re-brand itself after being designated a Superfund site for widespread asbestos contamination, Zinke said Columbia Falls would only be hurt by the stigma of “Superfund.”

“When you Google ‘Libby,’ it comes up ‘Superfund site,’” he said. “It hits you in the face.”

He also was critical of the EPA’s ability to turn the site around quickly, characterizing it as “desk after desk of bureaucracy.”

CFAC has hired Oregon-based Calbag Resources to begin the cleanup process at the aluminum plant. The company has already demolished several buildings, although it ran into a delay recently when far more asbestos was discovered in some of the buildings than had been previously determined.

The company’s director of asset recovery, Cliff Boyd, noted he had been able to hire locally for many positions involved in the demolition work. He estimated that Montanans make up about 65 percent of the current workforce of 70 at the plant. That includes 36 people hired from Columbia Falls.

The EPA's investigation of contamination at the site is on pace to wrap up by 2021. That work includes drilling 43 new wells to test for groundwater contamination, along with soil and sediment testing and developing a feasibility study for cleanup.

CFAC will submit a separate cleanup plan to the state Division of Environmental Quality by March 7.

“We’re hoping that’s the last light, if you will, for this plan,” he said, adding that by the end of the process, “We can hand the owners back a shovel-ready piece of property.”

He said his company — along with others he has worked for — have a successful track record remediating aluminum smelting facilities. Former plants in Oregon and Washington, he said, have been restored to a status of needing “no further action” — without Superfund listings.

Zinke said he hopes the property’s substantial infrastructure can still be put to use once cleanup has completed.

The site is equipped with three electric transmission lines, a 15-inch natural gas line, rail access, water from Flathead River, its own sewage system and a small army of former CFAC employees and lumber mill workers in need of work.

“You’ve got a willing work force that is hungry,” Zinke said. “Tourism, God bless it, it can’t sustain an economy.”

Reporter Sam Wilson can be reached at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com.