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CFAC Disagrees with Bullock’s
MARCH 4, 2015 | 9
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Recommendation for Superfund Listing
co
Company officials say listing would delay cleanup and hamper economic development
By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Beacon
Less than a week after Gov. Steve Bullock called on the Environmental Protection Agency to place the shut- tered Columbia Falls Aluminum Com- pany plant site on the Superfund pro- gram’s National Priority List, company officials responded with concerns that listing would slow cleanup efforts and hinder redevelopment.
On Feb. 18, Bullock sent a letter to EPA Regional Administrator Shaun Mc- Grath urging the agency to proceed with listing the site on the priority list to ex- pedite cleanup.
“I’m concerned that if this issue re- mains unaddressed, the contamination from the site is serious enough to pose long-term risks to the community and to Montana’s environment, including the Flathead River,” Bullock stated in his letter.
In response, Haley Beaudry, the for- mer external affairs manager at CFAC, said that while the company remains committed to assessing the site and de- veloping a Remedial Investigation Work Plan through a private contractor, a Su- perfund listing would “unnecessarily slow the cleanup process and any future redevelopment” of the contaminated site.
Beaudry pointed to a Dec. 12 letter in which CFAC Secretary Cheryl Driscoll raises similar concerns and invites Bull- ock and his staff to meet and discuss the matter, “which was never granted,” he stated.
According to Bullock’s office, the governor’s chief of staff tried for a month to broker a meeting with CFAC to no avail, holding the letter until negotia- tions broke down between the company and the Montana Department of Envi- ronmental Quality.
“Our office responded to Glencore and attempted to set up a meeting, but got no reply. After holding the letter for a month in hopes Glencore would respond, our chief of staff tried and got no reply,” according to a statement from Bullock’s communications director Dave Parker. “A few months ago, Glencore walked away from cleanup negotiations with the state Department of Environmental Quality. Given these factors, we believe the surest path to full cleanup is through the federal Superfund process.”
Driscoll wrote that listing on the National Priority List, or Superfund, can stigmatize a property and prevent others from seeking to redevelop the site, thus potentially limiting economic
CFAC direction sign in Columbia Falls. BEACON FILE PHOTO
growth. She stated that other Montana Superfund sites have not benefited from listing.
“We believe such a listing is an un- necessary bureaucratic step that will de- lay the cleanup of the site and could limit economic development in the Flathead Valley,” Driscoll wrote.
According to Driscoll, CFAC has hired Roux Associates to develop a Re- medial Investigation Work Plan.
“CFAC is committed to completing the site assessment process as efficiently as possible while fully complying with federal and state standards to perform such an assessment,” she wrote.
In his letter, Bullock urged the EPA to work with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to move for- ward with cleanup.
“It is my understanding that there is sufficient data to justify an NPL listing,” Bullock wrote. “Most importantly, there is widespread local support for NPL listing of the site to ensure appropriate cleanup that will ultimately allow for re- development of the site.”
He asked for the agency to conduct periodic residential well sampling until there is sufficient data or cleanup to in- dicate that contamination of residential wells is not a potential risk.
“The plant was a critical part of the economy of Columbia Falls and the site has been idle for too long,” Bullock stat- ed. “It has tremendous potential for re- development and will be an important anchor in the future of the region.”
Bullock’s letter comes over a month after Montana Sen. Jon Tester penned a letter to EPA Administrator Gina Mc- Carthy similarly pushing for a Super- fund listing for CFAC.
Negotiations broke down in recent months between CFAC, its parent com-
pany Glencore and the Montana Depart- ment of Environmental Quality over how to proceed with remediation and assessment of the site.
Recent reports from the state DEQ and the EPA have shown the site is eli- gible 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 stat- ed publicly that they oppose Superfund listing and recently hired their own en- vironmental consulting firm to develop an independent remedial investigation work plan.
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 NPL is the list of national priori- ties among the known releases or threat- ened releases of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants throughout the United States. It is used to guide the EPA in determining which sites warrant further investigation.
The CFAC plant began producing aluminum 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 ar- ea’s economy.
When it shut down at the end of Oc- tober 2009, the closure forced the lay- off of nearly 90 workers as high-energy prices and poor market conditions made operations 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 Su- perfund program.
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