CFAC demolition sees far more asbestos than expected

Demolition of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant will likely take about six months longer than was first expected, namely because tests are finding the old plant had far more asbestos than was expected, said Cliff Boyd of Calbag Resources Monday night. Boyd gives the Columbia Falls City Council an update on the demolition once a month.

Calbag has purchased the above-ground assets of the old aluminum smelter and is tearing the plant down, but the cost of removing the asbestos-laden materials, which have to be taken out under strict health and safety protocols, is still the responsibility of CFAC.

To date, Boyd said Calbag has taken more than 1,400 asbestos samples, which is about five times more than CFAC originally reported when Calbag took on the task of tearing down the plant. Boyd said the cost of sampling alone has been about $50,000.

Calbag initially said it would take about 2.5 years to tear down the plant. Now it will likely take three years. Boyd said it wasn’t so much a delay, as it was a change in scope of the work.

Over the past few weeks a crew of 75 workers, about half of which are Columbia Falls residents, have continued the demolition effort. The rod mill is completely gone now and the next big building to go is the paste plant. The plant is full of carbon dust and is highly flammable. To handle that aspect, Calbag will bring in a giant machine with huge shears on arms that extend more than 100 feet in the air. The machine will carefully cut the building down. That machine should arrive in mid-February and the work should be completed by June.

The company is still awaiting a permit from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality to remove the spent potliners from the plant. Spent potliner is a hazardous waste. It contains asbestos and a host of heavy metals. To contain the waste, Calbag will create a decontamination area that is sealed and has negative air pressure at the end of the potline.

Trucks will roll into it, the spent potliner will be loaded into sealed containers on the trucks and hauled away. The trucks themselves will also be cleaned before they leave to make sure no asbestos and other contamination is in the wheel wells.

Boyd said the initial plan that was sent to DEQ this fall for the removal of spent potliner was about 290 pages. As the two work on a plan, it’s ballooned to more than 800 pages. 

The spent potliner will go to an approved landfill in Oregon. Boyd said the same procedure was used to remove potliner from defunct plants in other regions of the Pacific Northwest. A DEQ spokesperson did not immediately return a call seeking comment on the permit’s status.