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Columbia Falls Aluminum Company. BEACON FILE PHOTO
EPA Could Decide CFAC Superfund Listing in Spring or Fall Community grappling with the bene ts and pitfalls of potential federal cleanup
BY DILLON TABISH OF THE BEACON
COLUMBIA FALLS – The Environ- mental Protection Agency could approve Superfund cleanup for the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site as early as this spring or next fall, according to an agency o cial.
Mike Cirian, an EPA project manager based in Libby, broke the news on Jan. 21 to a group of city and county leaders and residents, many of whom were surprised by the sudden potential action.
Cirian said the shuttered aluminum plant met the requirements to be added to the National Priorities List, which would make it eligible for long-term remedial cleanup under the federal Superfund program. The EPA designates Superfund sites twice a year, in spring and fall.
“March is the rst time they can list but it’s looking like listing probably won’t happen until fall,” he said, adding “none of this is a done deal.”
The potential Superfund listing has become a polarizing topic in a commu- nity grappling with how to clean up the 960-acre industrial site that has sat idle for years northeast of town and near the Flathead River. Tests have detected con- taminants such as cyanide, uoride and metals, such as arsenic, chromium, lead, and selenium at the site.
Some attendees at last week’s meeting, including Columbia Falls Mayor Donald Barnhart, expressed dismay at the loom- ing designation and worried about the impacts of the “Superfund stigma” that could hurt the town’s tourism and real estate industries.
City leaders and community mem- bers previously pushed for Superfund
cleanup, garnering the support of Mon- tana Gov. Steve Bullock and U.S. Sen. Jon Tester. U.S. Sen. Steve Daines has remained neutral, saying he wanted the community to decide. U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a White sh native, has opposed the Superfund listing, claiming the proj- ects are never removed from Superfund listing and regularly go over budget. CFAC has also opposed the federal list- ing, claiming it can complete the cleanup “better and faster,” the company’s proj- ect manager John Stroiazzo said.
The EPA received 77 public comments in early 2015 on the proposed listing and a majority expressed support for the Super- fund cleanup, according to public records of the comments listed at regulations.gov.
The situation evolved in late Novem- ber after CFAC’s parent company, Glen- core, reached an agreement with the EPA to launch a $4 million remedial investiga- tion into the full scope of contamination. The investigation process is expected to take four to ve years, starting with ini- tial surveying in April followed by the drilling of 43 sampling wells from May through September, according to Stroi- azzo. Groundwater sampling would begin in fall. EPA o cials will provide oversight for CFAC’s investigation, Stroiazzo said.
Cirian praised the agreement as a major step towards cleanup. However, the agreement does not supersede the potential for Superfund listing, he noted. Cirian said Superfund listing could play an important role in the process because it could ensure the cleanup is properly completed.
“When this site is done, it will be cleaner than it is now and that’s what Superfund does,” he said.
Cirian said the agency is also consider- ing an alternative to Superfund cleanup, but that scenario has only happened once before in EPA’s Region 8, which encom- passes Montana and ve other nearby states.
Some have said the Superfund list- ing is unnecessary following the CFAC agreement.
“It seemed Superfund was to cover us if working with the company didn’t work out,” Barnhart said.
Phil Mitchell, a rst-term Flathead County commissioner, said his govern- ment board was opposed to a Superfund listing and that he believes the community as a whole is against the federal cleanup “unless it is absolutely necessary.”
Some community members expressed concern over the negative image of hav- ing a local Superfund site, using Libby as a decade-long example. Libby was declared an EPA Superfund site in 2002 due to poi- sonous asbestos mined near the town that created an environmental disaster that is only now coming to a conclusion.
“If this designation does happen, we need help with how to talk about it so we don’t compound the negatively,” commu- nity member Anna Stene said.
Cirian said the “Superfund stigma” does not have to become a reality and that “the community will be better o after (cleanup is) done.”
“Nobody wants the stigma of Super- fund but we all want it cleaned up,” local business owner Ray Negron said.
Community members can pass along written comments to cirian.mike@epa. gov or by mail at US EPA Region 8, 108 East Ninth St., Libby, MT 59923.
dtabish@ atheadbeacon.com
JANUARY 27, 2016 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM
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