News & Features
Demolition Nearly Completed at Columbia Falls Superfund Site
Groundwater contaminants so far contained to specific locations on site; no excess cyanide, fluoride detected near Aluminum City
BY ANDY VIANO // MAY 11, 2018
Instead of the massive pot rooms that once pumped out millions of pounds of aluminum, dozens of local residents saw sprawling holes at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. during a public presentation and tour on May 9, a show of progress at the contaminated Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site that is in the midst of a years-long cleanup. ... More than 50 people packed into a small conference room for a PowerPoint presentation led by representatives from CFAC, Roux Associates and the EPA, then boarded two school buses to tour both flattened pot rooms and an active monitoring well.
Since 2015, workers have been painstakingly dismantling the shuttered aluminum plant, which was declared a Superfund site — one recognized by EPA as among the most contaminated in the country — in 2016. Project managers say demolition of a 10th and final pot room, along with silos that once stored materials on site, will be completed by early 2019. The 45,000-cubic foot holes left by each pot room will eventually be filled with gravel, tour leaders said, and not all structures on the site will be demolished. John Stroiazzo, CFAC’s project manager, said the fabrication building, warehouses and the main office facility would remain standing and could, potentially, be used by other industrial businesses in the future. Any future occupation of the site, however, could not occur until after it is cleared by the EPA, likely no earlier than 2021.
During demolition, more than 29,000 tons of hazardous waste has been removed from the site and more than 131,000 tons of material (metals and carbon) have been recycled. Demolition work is being conducted by Calbag Resources under the supervision of the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. ... In addition to the demolition, Roux Associates, with oversight from the EPA and DEQ, has been conducting what it calls a Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study to identify contaminated areas at the site. Since 2016, Roux staff has monitored the groundwater through 64 wells and collected more than 900 samples of soil/sediment, groundwater and surface water.
....
CFAC first opened in 1955 and at one time employed more than 1,500 people at the plant, producing about 1 million pounds of aluminum per day. Glencore AG, a Swiss company, purchased CFAC in 1999 and the site closed in 2009. More information on cleanup efforts can be found at
www.cfacproject.com.
andy@flatheadbeacon.com
There was this comment:
Richard Hanners
Mike Ritorto is a hydrologist for Roux Associates. The "Remedial Investigation/Feasibility Study" is the name given to the required study by the EPA and is required for all Superfund sites. The residential subdivision near the aluminum plant was legally named Aluminum City in 1954. Contamination from aluminum smelting can be found all over the 960-acre plant property and on surrounding land as far away as Glacier National Park (sediments in the Park's lakes contain polycyclical aromatic hydrocarbons that scientists positively linked to the smelter), but that is contamination deposited from aerial emissions, not groundwater contamination which emanates from former soaking pits, leaking landfills and an improper chemical drum disposal site. The CFAC Community Liaison Panel has local members, but it was created by Ann Green Communications, a public relations company from South Charleston, West Virginia, which was hired by Glencore AG, the Swiss company that owns the Superfund site. Meetings initially were closed to the public until public officials who were chosen to sit on the liaison panel informed Ann Green that a closed meeting would violate Montana law.
Demolition of Columbia Falls aluminum plant is nearly complete
Associated Press May 11, 2018
KALISPELL — Demolition of a closed aluminum plant that has been declared a federal Superfund site in northwest Montana is scheduled to wrap up by early next year.
The
Flathead Beacon reports dozens of area residents toured the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant on Wednesday to see how cleanup efforts have progressed.
Workers have been dismantling the plant since 2015. It was designated as a contaminated site in 2016.
Project managers say the demolition of silos and the last pot room, an area where compounds were melted down to turn into aluminum, will be completed by early 2019. The holes left by each pot room will later be filled with gravel.
Officials say warehouses and other buildings at the site will remain standing.
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