Page 22 - Flathead Beacon // 11.9.16

COVER
MIKE CIRIAN
U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, left, tours the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site with Mike Cirian, center, EPA Remedial Project Manager, and Steve Wright, CFAC environmental manager. BEACON FILE PHOTO
materials, and cleanup e orts began even before the rigorous scienti c review of toxicity values was complete. In Colum- bia Falls, though, the scope and extent of contamination is uncertain.
“Right now, I don’t even know what I need to clean up at all in Columbia Falls,” Cirian said. “We know there’s some stu there, but is that land ll holding? Is it doing what it’s supposed to? Will it do what it’s supposed to for a long, long time? Is it on the verge (of breaking)? Or has it already broken? ... We really need to nd out what’s there. That’s where the rub comes in for the locals, (who say,) ‘Just go clean it up.’ I wish I had that crystal ball that would tell me what it is. But I have a slow magnifying glass, and water sam- ples, that’ll tell me that over time.”
Currently, the CFAC site is in the RI/
FS, or remedial investigation/feasibil- ity study, stage. (When speaking, Cirian always notes both the abbreviation and the full phrase, so that the layperson doesn’t get bogged down in alphabet soup.) Over at least the next year, until December 2017, subcontractors with Roux Associates will poke and prod the soil, water, and rock on site from every angle to identify the sources of contamination. They’ll characterize the types of contam- ination present, and then map out where it’s located. They’ll chart how the ground- water swells and drifts to understand how contaminants might be transported around the site and outside its boundary.
Most of the time during the investi- gation stage, the land lies in wait — con- tractors take soil samples from acre-sized grid squares, and water samples from surface water and 64 wells, four times a year. Each sample is then independently veri ed in a lab in New Jersey. Mean- ingful analysis can’t be completed until there are many rounds of data. O cials anticipate the feasibility study, the docu- ment that will nally elucidate the situa- tion and evaluate cleanup strategies, to be complete by 2021, a timeline that doesn’t sit right with many residents.
“I have a very grave concern, and that is, in this long, lengthy process, time doesn’t seem to be of the essence,” one community member who did not share
his name said at a September EPA com- munity meeting. “I don’t feel any sense of urgency. I’d like to see real activity to solve this problem.”
Cirian has vowed time after time that he wishes he could speed up the process. “It’d be nice if we could take one sam-
ple and go, ‘Okay, now we know what the answer is,’” Cirian later said.
But good science — especially the kind that informs long-term, expensive deci- sions related to the health of human com- munities — takes time.
“(The community) want(s) to see results,” a Columbia Falls resident, who did not wish to be named but lives near the CFAC site, said at the same meeting. “This a ects our lives. ... Right now, it’s a trust factor.”
Cirian knows about earning trust. Libby was the ultimate proving ground.
“Some (people), they don’t trust their government; they don’t want the gov- ernment in their business,” Cirian said. “There’s a group that aren’t even willing to talk to us. We don’t even know why. ... We’re in Montana, and some people just want to be left alone. And they have that right to be.”
He’s had his share of critics in Libby, the most skeptical suggesting that he’s “lying” about sample results and “cheat- ing” the process.
don’t do cleanups to a certain standard because the money I save, I get to keep. Wow,” Cirian said. “If that was true, I’d have retired a long time ago. We’re spend- ing millions here, and I’m not a million- aire — not even close.”
He prefers to make his life “like an open book for people to know about,” which has become habit, a principle. He’s been investigated by the EPA Inspector General several times — Cirian says it’s protocol to thoroughly probe every accu- sation — but no charges have resulted.
“I know there’s been some contro- versy,” Lincoln County Commissioner Mark Peck said. “Some people don’t like him. But others do. And that’s the nature of the job.”
Cirian recognizes that he won’t be able to win some people over, and that’s okay with him. It’s not necessarily his job to make everyone happy.
“I like that people trust me,” he said. Still, “the ultimate goal is to make sure that we’re protecting human health and the environment. I know that sounds like such a cliché, but, you know, that’s really what we’re here for.”
After crews remove any toxic materi- als, the EPA is bound to replace the site’s amenities only in kind — Cirian said he can’t approve betterments. At the Libby site, in particular, where the cleanup is conducted in people’s most personal
“SOME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE HIM. BUT OTHERS DO. AND THAT’S
THE NATURE OF THE JOB.”
- MARK PECK
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