Page 6 - Flathead Beacon // 1.14.15

6 | JANUARY 14, 2015 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM Tester Urges EPA to List CFAC as Superfund Site
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Senator says he is ‘deeply troubled’ by breakdown in negotiations between Glencore and state DEQ
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., last week exhorted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to designate the shut- tered Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant a Superfund site in an effort to expedite cleanup of the contaminated land along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River.
In a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Tester urged the agency and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock “to list this project on the Superfund priority listing so work can begin to ensure this site can be returned to a productive and safe state.”
Tester’s letter came directly on the heels of a breakdown in negotiations be- tween CFAC, its parent company Glencore and the Montana Department of Environ- mental Quality.
The negotiations about how to proceed with remediation and assessment of the site were plodding along for months before CFAC announced it would no longer nego- tiation with DEQ officials, calling their as- sessment of the site inadequate.
Recent reports from the state DEQ and the EPA have shown the site is eligible for Superfund status, but the site’s owner, Glencore, a Swiss commodities firm, has never explained what it intends to do with the property.
Both Glencore and CFAC have stated publicly that they oppose Superfund list- ing, and recently hired their own environ- mental consulting firm to develop an inde- pendent remedial investigation work plan.
Tester wrote that he was “deeply trou- bled by this recent development,” and asked the EPA to make an administrative decision to place the site on the Nation- al Priorities List, a catalog of hazardous waste sites eligible for long-term cleanup financed under the Superfund program.
“Your regional office has been conduct- ing remedial investigations on the site in
Aerial of the shuttered Columbia Falls Aluminum Company. BEACON FILE PHOTO
Columbia Falls. This investigation has re- vealed cyanide and minerals leaching into the groundwater at the location, which abuts the Flathead River,” Tester stated in his letter to McCarthy. “This situation is of great concern to the community. It is time to begin the process to return the site to a productive state. Absent agreement from Glencore and the Columbia Falls Alumi- num Company to accept responsibility for their role in the cleanup efforts, I encour- age the Environmental Protection Agency to proceed with a national priority listing under national Superfund laws. Such a designation would meet the community’s desire to move the project forward while creating jobs.”
The potentially hazardous materials were discovered in soil, groundwater and surface water at the plant site, and cyanide contamination was found in sediment in the Flathead River.
The CFAC plant began producing alu- minum in 1955, with production reaching 180,000 tons of aluminum by 1968. At its height, the plant employed 1,500 people
and was central to the area’s economy. When it shut down at the end of Octo- ber 2009, the closure forced the layoff of nearly 90 workers as high-energy prices and poor market conditions made opera-
tions unprofitable.
If listed, past and present owners
would be assigned cleanup costs; if they are unwilling to pay, the cleanup can move forward with money from the Superfund program.
The listing process itself can take about a year, but it generally takes the agency an additional three to five years to determine how to clean up the site, ac- cording to the EPA.
“The community of Columbia Falls is adjacent to the ‘crown jewel’ of the Nation- al Park System, Glacier National Park,” Tester continued in the letter. “The Park hosts over 2 million visitor annually. It is imperative that we not allow Glencore’s re- fusal to negotiate with MTDEQ to threat- en the watershed and surrounding com- munities.”
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