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Meeting to Address First CFAC Site Investigation Report

Meeting is Wednesday, April 19 from 6-8 p.m. inside the Columbia Falls High School cafeteria

By Dillon Tabish
Demolition at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site. Beacon File Photo

A federal official from the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as site managers from the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site, will host a community meeting to share information about the ongoing remedial investigation at the Superfund site near the Flathead River.

The meeting is Wednesday, April 19 from 6-8 p.m. inside the Columbia Falls High School cafeteria. Discussion will center on the first round of results from site sampling that was recently published and confirmed the existence of cyanide, fluoride and hazardous metals to varying degrees at the property. To aid the organizers in preparing the meeting, attendees are encouraged to call 1-877-384-7036 to RSVP.

According to CFAC, the property owner that is conducting the investigation with oversight by the EPA and Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the initial site investigation has confirmed groundwater has been impacted by materials placed in the legacy landfills that were used from 1955 until approximately 1980. The studies indicate the material is not moving toward drinking water wells in the nearby residential neighborhood known as Aluminum City, according to CFAC officials.

The 7,300-page report detailing the first round of remedial investigation outlines the results from more than 700 samples that were collected from the site’s soil, groundwater, surface water and sediment. A total of 44 monitoring wells were installed and the first phase of site investigation took place over a seven-month span in 2016. A second round of testing is underway now and results should be published by June, according to a CFAC official.

The former aluminum plant, located on 960 acres on the outskirts of Columbia Falls, was declared a federal Superfund site last fall and is in the early stages of site investigation before a multi-year cleanup effort begins.