Developer moves to purchase CFAC site following EPA's cleanup decision

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released its record of decision for cleaning up the defunct Columbia Falls Aluminum Company plant, which paves the way for Columbia Falls developer Mick Ruis to buy most of the property.

Most of 2,000-acre property is outside the former plant's footprint and landfills. Last year, Ruis said he had agreed to buy the site from owner Glencore for a housing and parks development, pending the EPA's final record of decision.

Ruis said last week that he expects to be able to close on the sale in the next 30 days as attorneys go over the land sale. He said he is not buying the landfill sites.

Ruis has said previously he wants to construct homes that will be listed at $500,000, with 10% down and owner financing at 6%.

The EPA's cleanup plan calls for placing a fully encompassing slurry wall around the worst landfills and dumps at the plant ­— the wet scrubber sludge pond and the west landfill. 

The record of decision largely mirrors a previously released proposed action for the Superfund site and has been years in the making. The site was first listed as a Superfund site in 2015.

The public, by a large margin, wanted the waste dug up and hauled away by train to an approved landfill in Oregon -- at least initially. Then the local group Coalition for the Clean CFAC called for an alternative that would have consolidated the waste onsite into one large landfill.

That idea was ultimately rejected, as was hauling the waste away.

The EPA and Glencore both noted that hauling the waste was expensive, with an estimated cost of $624 million to $1.2 billion. EPA officials also noted that even if the waste was dug up, there was no guarantee that it could all be removed.

Both the sludge pond and west landfill, which are grassy meadows today, are leaching high amounts of cyanide and fluoride into the groundwater from spent potliner waste that was buried decades ago. Spent potliner is the carbon material at the bottom of the pots where the aluminum was smelted.

Cyanide and fluoride are two contaminants common to aluminum plants across the Northwest U.S.

The slurry wall would be a 3-foot-thick 100 to 125-foot-deep wall of bentonite and soil designed to contain the waste.

If the wall is found to leak, monitoring wells will draw the water to the surface, and it will be treated and returned to the water table.

The plan also calls for capping both the wet scrubber sludge pond and the west landfill.

Groundwater at the site would also see long-term monitoring.

The Cedar Creek overflow ditch would also be lined so that it doesn’t seep into groundwater. The ditch, which runs from the Cedar Creek Reservoir, passes through the property in a concrete sluice.

The decision also calls for a suite of monitoring wells on the site, as some members of the public and past employees have said there were other areas where hazardous waste was dumped.

“For the first five years, long-term monitoring will be in June and October to document conditions during the high- and low-water season, respectively," the EPA stated in its decision. "Based on sampling results from the first five years, the frequency of monitoring may be reduced to annually. Surface water and sediment porewater monitoring will continue until RAOs are achieved. The details on the monitoring network and frequency of sampling and parameters analyzed will be provided in a long-term surface water, porewater and groundwater monitoring plan developed during remedial design."

There will also be deed restrictions on groundwater to keep anyone from using it for potable uses. The EPA is also requiring that the former plant area be restricted to commercial or industrial use.

Other landfills at the site will also see caps bolstered. All told, there are seven landfills at the site. The industrial landfill and asbestos landfill will see improved caps.

In addition, about 32,500 cubic yards of contaminated soils -- which have copper, nickel, selenium and zinc, as well as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- will be consolidated into a landfill on site or in a new landfill.

“This cleanup plan reflects years of collaboration and is a crucial step in finalizing a comprehensive set of cleanup actions that will protect the health of the community and the environment,” said EPA Regional Administrator KC Becker in a media release. “In partnership with Montana DEQ and the Columbia Falls community leaders, we have worked to ensure public participation and transparency throughout the process. We are moving forward now to get the cleanup underway, protect the Flathead River and move toward a safer, healthier future for everyone who calls the Columbia Falls area home.”

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality also supported the plan.

“DEQ’s highest priority, for any Superfund site in Montana, is that the selected remedy be protective of human health and the environment,” said DEQ Director Sonja Nowakowski. “We are confident that the plan announced today will meet those criteria, and DEQ will work with stakeholders and the EPA to ensure that the cleanup is successfully implemented.”

EPA and DEQ will now work to finalize a consent decree with the potentially responsible parties, Glencore and former plant owner the Atlantic Richfield Co. The consent decree will include a comprehensive statement of work and will be open for public comment before being finalized, the EPA said in a release.

EPA and DEQ estimate that the actual cleanup activities, once initiated, will take two to four years to complete.

The 400-plus page ROD is available at the Columbia Falls library and on the EPA’s CFAC Superfund Site webpage.