Council officially on board with Superfund listing

The Columbia Falls City Council at their April 6 meeting jointly signed an official letter informing the Environmental Protection Agency that they unanimously support placing the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. smelter site on the Superfund’s National Priorities List for cleanup.

The decision to put the CFAC site on the Superfund list will in large part be determined by the comments received while the proposal is published in the Federal Register. A 60-day public comment period on the proposed Superfund listing began March 26 and will continue to May 25.

During that time, comments can be submitted online at www.regulations.gov and following the online instructions using FDMS Docket No. EPA-HQ-SFUND-2015-0139; or mailed to Docket Coordinator, Headquarters, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, CERCLA Docket Office, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20460; or e-mailed to superfund.docket@epa.gov.

The Federal Register notice and supporting documents for the proposed listing are available online at www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/npl/current.htm.

The Columbia Falls City Council noted in their comment letter that because the smelter site’s owner, Glencore, chose to end negotiations with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, that “DEQ and EPA must ensure that remediation and cleanup will occur in a timely manner.”

The letter also stated the council’s concerns about maintaining safe drinking water for the city.

“While the testing of the city’s wells have not revealed that the known contaminants from the CFAC site have made their way into the city’s drinking water supply as of now, the city would not like to see cleanup and remedial action delayed until the city is faced with costly emergency measures to protect the city’s water supply,” the letter states.

Councilor Mike Shepard said he spoke with Rep. Ryan Zinke about the CFAC site following Zinke’s April 2 town hall meeting in Kalispell.

“We both agreed we’d be dead before the site is completely cleaned up,” Shepard said. “It’ll cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and I don’t expect Glencore will do it.”

Shepard, who worked at the CFAC plant in the past, pointed out a big difference between Libby and CFAC — “Here, the Superfund site is out in the county.” That said, he also noted that the Flathead County Commissioners so far have not supported a Superfund-type cleanup for the site.

“They said something like, ‘It’s private property and none of our business,’” Shepard said.

Shepard said he agreed with some of Zinke’s points against placing the CFAC site on the Superfund list.

“But with so much contaminants working their way downstream, it is our concern,” he said. “So I will sign this letter.

Mayor Don Barnhart also weighed in on the cleanup process.

“By going to the EPA and National Priorities List, we’re forcing Glencore to move forward,” he said.

Barnhart noted that under Superfund law, portions of a site can be redeveloped while the rest of the site is being cleaned up.