DEQ, Calbag close to final work plan for CFAC demo

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and Calbag, the company that’s tearing down the old Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant, are close to finalizing a work plan for demolition of the site.

DEQ officials made the announcement last week, but took objection to claims from Calbag that the agency was holding up the demolition.

Calbag project manager Cliff Boyd last month claimed that DEQ regulations have ballooned the paperwork for the demolition to 1,600 pages and held up the project, particularly with the removal of spent potliners from the decrepit plant. He claimed the delays were putting about 30 men out of work.

But Mark Hall, Cory Mikita and Mike Rieger of the DEQ said last week during a conference call that DEQ, hasn’t held up the process. Calbag entered an administrative order on consent last August and since then, the agency has been working with the company to assure the cleanup was done properly. 

They said the actual work plan is about 21 pages and even with appendices is about 200 total — not 1,600.

There have been three key issues, the men said. For one, the company needed to submit a reuse and recycle report, which took several months. The DEQ wanted assurance that recycled material, such as aluminum and steel, was not contaminated with hazardous waste. The company also needed a closure plan for the plant and a hazardous waste plan — all of which are rolled into the work plan.

But one large element of the discussions most recently concerned $9 million in bonding of the project. Hall said the DEQ wants financial assurances from Calbag and CFAC that the project is properly bonded in the event the companies don’t complete the work.

“It’s a big component of the (work) plan,” Hall said.

Hall said those details are close to being ironed out and a final work plan could be approved by the end of the week.