Calbag looks to clear air on CFAC dust

The company that’s tearing down the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co, smelter is hoping to clear the air a bit on its operations.

Dust that folks were seeing from trucks leaving the Columbia Falls Aluminum site last month was aluminum oxide ore from the plant’s rod mill, which is not a hazardous substance, said project manager Cliff Boyd of Calbag Resources.

Earlier this month, some Columbia Falls residents complained about the dust and were worried it might be asbestos, but that was never the case.

The raw aluminum oxide ore is very fine. The company wetted it down before it was loaded onto self-tarping trucks. Normally, the ore would have been sold to another aluminum smelter, but with Alcoa recently announcing it would close its Intalco and Wenatchee plants in Washington state, there are no active aluminum smelters left in the Pacific Northwest.

That meant the ore had to be disposed of, and 2,950 tons went to the Flathead County landfill.

The ore is very fine, like talcum powder and dust is very difficult to control, even with water.

“I would like to tell you we’re never going to make any dust,” Boyd said during a tour of the plant last week. “That’s not going to happen.”

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality issued a Notice of Violation to the company, claiming the company did not provide a complete inventory of “hazardous waste” in its transport plan. 

While Calbag has taken more than 3,000 samples at the plant, the DEQ maintained it needed to determine if anode carbons, aluminum busbars, raw ore and sweepings were actually hazardous waste.

Boyd said the company should have those tests back and have a revised plan to DEQ this week. They hope to have a final agreement with the agency for removal of spent potliner by early next year.

In the meantime, the company has suspended transport of all materials from the plant until final approval from DEQ.

As far as asbestos is concerned, Boyd said any asbestos that is removed from the plant undergo a thorough heavy-duty plastic packaging and sealing process before it can even be put on a truck. 

The trucks themselves have special sealing measures as well, including a liner in the bottom of the truck and a secure cover.

The company has contracted out the transportation of asbestos materials to Chemical Waste Management, who will haul the material from the plant by truck to its Environmental Protection Agency approved landfill in Oregon.

Aside from dust issues, the demolition of the plant has been an economic boost to the local economy. Calbag has 70 workers at the plant, with more than half of them from Columbia Falls. 

Boyd said he’s spending about $400,000 a month locally and buys 10,000 gallons of fuel a month and rents 13 homes in town. Workers get full benefits and health insurance.

Calbag purchased most of the above-ground assets at the facility and it will take about two years to complete the job.

Some buildings at the plant won’t be torn down, including the main office and several warehouses.

But there are thousands of tons of steel and aluminum in the structure that will be recycled. Crews cut the steel with torches and with a huge machine that works like a guillotine. 

To cut the aluminum bars in the plant, they use chainsaws with special blades. The bars have to be cut to length so they can be melted down.

Almost nothing goes to waste. The concrete flooring will be broken up, the steel re-bar recovered and the concrete crushed and recycled as well.

Most of the material — about 80 percent — will go by rail to recycling facilities. 

But the roofing, which has black tar impregnated with asbestos, will be cut up, sealed and shipped to an approved landfill, because there’s no way to get the asbestos out of the tar safely.

Thousands of tons of steel will essentially go to waste, Boyd noted.