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COUNTY BEAT 14 CITY BEAT 14 COURT BEAT 15 Newsworthy
Tester Urges Superfund Listing for CFAC to
Keep Glencore’s ‘Feet to the Fire’
U.S. Senator joins Glencore, local o cials for a tour of closed CFAC site as demolition continues
BY JUSTIN FRANZ OF THE BEACON
COLUMBIA FALLS – U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., applauded the owners of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company in their e orts to clean up the shuttered plant along the Flathead River, but said he still believes the site should be desig- nated a Superfund site by the U.S. Envi- ronmental Protection Agency.
On March 24, Tester joined o cials from Glencore for a tour of the 807-acre industrial site just north of Columbia Falls. The tour comes just weeks before Glencore begins construction of numer- ous wells to study the groundwater and soil to determine the level of contamina- tion on site.
From 1955 until 2009, the plant pro- duced millions of pounds of aluminum, but the decades of industrial activity on the site has resulted in an extensive water and soil contamination, according to previous studies.
While some elected o cials have said they don’t think the site needs to be listed as a Superfund – in hopes of avoid- ing the “stigma” that might come with it – Tester said he rmly believes it should be included on the federal cleanup list. Tester said his opinion is shaped by past dealings with Glencore.
“We need to hold their feet to the re. I applaud their e orts to clean up the site up so far, but I think if this were to become a voluntary e ort they’d walk away from their responsibilities,” Tester said in the shadow of the former plant. “They’ve walked away from past deals time and time again. We may be dealing with di erent people now but it’s still Glencore.”
Since October 2015, 16 small struc- tures have been torn down in an e ort to clear the site and eventually sell it.
Glencore purchased the aluminum plant in 1999. In October 2009, the com- pany curtailed operations because of economic issues and an increase in power costs. Tester tried to negotiate a 10-year power deal between CFAC and the Bon- neville Power Administration that would reopen the plant, but Glencore ultimately walked away from the deal. In 2014, Tes- ter said Glencore had misled the commu- nity and that it “never had any intentions of (reopening CFAC).” Since then, Tester has been pushing for a full-scale environ- mental cleanup of the site so that it can be sold and repurposed.
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, right, speaks with Columbia Falls Mayor Don Barnhart, left, and City Manager Susan Nicosia after a tour of CFAC on March 24. GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON
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Late last year, Glencore agreed to an Administrative Order of Consent that states it will pay for the environmental damages at the site and work with the EPA and Montana Department of Envi- ronmental Quality on a $4 million reme- dial investigation into the full scope of the contamination.
The site is currently on the National Priorities List, which is a precursor to Superfund listing. EPA o cials have said they will decide later this year whether the property should be approved for a Superfund cleanup.
Glencore o cials have said they hope the site can be cleaned up without such designation.
“This company does not want this site to be listed because we believe it would make it tougher to redevelop and sell the site. It would make it a much less attrac- tive site for potential owners,” said Glen- core spokesperson Cheryl Driscoll, who joined Tester on the tour.
Tester disagrees and said a Superfund listing would make no di erence on the site’s future value.
“Once this place is cleaned up there will be no stigma attached to it,” he said, adding its proximity to a scenic river, a rail line and an electric power plant make it an attractive buy.
But not all of Montana’s Washing- ton D.C. delegation agrees with Tes- ter. Republican U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, a White sh native, has opposed listing the site as a Superfund. During a tour of the old aluminum plant last month, he said listing the site would drag out the cleanup e ort. Zinke said he favors hav- ing the DEQ take the lead in overseeing Glencore’s cleanup.
Tester said that Zinke might have a di erent opinion about listing the CFAC site if he had the same experiences the senator has had with Glencore.
Local o cials have also been split on whether the site should be listed. Earlier
this year, the Flathead County Commis- sion approved a letter supporting the alternative plan proposed by Glencore that cleans the site without making it a Superfund. On the other side, in Febru- ary, the Columbia Falls City Council sent a letter to Tester urging him to “stay the course” and get the site listed by the EPA.
Columbia Falls Mayor Don Barnhart said he falls somewhere in the middle; he just wants the site to be cleaned up so the community can move forward.
“I understand why Sen. Tester has a bad taste in his mouth about Glencore because they’ve walked away from deals in the past,” Barnhart said. “We just want the site cleaned up, we want it done right and we want it done fast so that we can redevelop it and I think that’s what’s hap- pening right now.”
The EPA is hosting a public meeting about the CFAC cleanup at Columbia Falls City Hall on April 5 at 6 p.m.
jfranz@ atheadbeacon.com