Grassroots group urges EPA to take more time to determine how to address Superfund site near Columbia Falls.

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ENVIRONMENT
We have one chance to get it right’

‘Grassroots group urges EPA to take more time to determine how to address Superfund site near Columbia Falls.

by Justin Franz
04.08.2024



The remains of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co., are seen just north of Columbia Falls, on April 1, 2024. This site was designated a Superfund site by the EPA in 2016 and the agency is expected to release a final Record of Decision about its cleanup in the coming weeks. Credit: Justin Franz / MTFP

Just north of Columbia Falls, high above the Flathead River at the foot of Teakettle Mountain, sits what could be one of the most valuable pieces of private land in the Flathead Valley, approximately 2,400 acres that was once home to the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company. ... There’s just one problem: There’s a Superfund site on it.

Fifteen years after the plant was shuttered for good and eight years after it was added to the National Priorities List (also known as the Superfund list), the Environmental Protection Agency is in the final stages of determining how to address the contamination, and the owner of the land is eyeing a sale for future development. But now, as the EPA is reportedly close to issuing its final Record of Decision, a grassroots group in Columbia Falls is urging the federal agency to slow down. The group, called the Coalition for a Clean CFAC, has said the EPA hasn’t been transparent enough and that the agency’s preferred solution, leaving most of the contamination in place by building a concrete wall around it, could negatively impact the community in the future. ... “We have one chance to get this right for the community,” said Peter Metcalf, a Columbia Falls resident and board member for Coalition for a Clean CFAC.

As demand for aluminum increased after World War II, the Pacific Northwest, with ample access to hydroelectricity, became an epicenter for the industry with nearly a dozen large plants scattered across Washington, Oregon and Montana. At one point, more than 11,000 people worked in aluminum production in the region. In 1955, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company opened CFAC at the base of Teakettle Mountain, just a few miles away from its primary power source, the newly constructed Hungry Horse Dam. The plant eventually employed nearly 1,000 people, making it the largest employer in Flathead County.

While the plant secured Columbia Falls’ spot as the industrial hub of the Flathead Valley, the environmental impacts of CFAC were also soon obvious. In 1969, U.S. Forest Service researchers began to report on the negative impacts of fluoride emissions from the facility on plants and wildlife. Other contaminants, including sodium and cyanide, were soon discovered on site as well.

Ownership of the plant changed multiple times through the second half of the 20th century, finally being acquired by Glencore — one of the world’s largest mining companies — in May 1999. As demand for aluminum waned, Glencore reduced production at CFAC and idled it entirely for the first time in January 2001. A year later, the plant was restarted, but not to full capacity. It remained open until October 2009 when production was halted for good. In September 2016, after years of back and forth between Glencore and local, state and federal officials, CFAC was designated a Superfund site.

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