Tester says he sides with city on CFAC cleanup
This is one of the few buildings remaining at the CFAC site. The company and developer Mick Ruis announced an agreement for Ruis to purchase 2,400 acres of land at the former aluminum plant site, including warehouses like the one shown.
Montana Sen. Jon Tester said last week he had the Columbia Falls City Council’s back on concerns it has about the cleanup of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. site.
The council has expressed concerns about the feasibility study CFAC recently released that ranked a slurry wall as the best way to contain wastewater fouled with cyanide and and other hazards at the site.
The council wasn’t impressed with the idea and would rather have the waste hauled out to an approved hazardous waste landfill in Oregon.
That option wasn’t even priced out in the study, but the company claimed that could expose the community to more pollution, as the material would have to be hauled out by truck through town.
Tester was backing the city council, he said.
“I’ll be on the city council’s side on this stuff,” Tester said during a visit to Kalispell last week.
The feasibility study was just one step in the Superfund process, however. The EPA will release a proposed action this fall on how best to clean up the site.
Tester said he’d be taking a hard look at what the EPA proposes.
City leaders wrote a letter to Tester outlining their concerns about the slurry wall alternative earlier this year.
A slurry wall is still an expensive option — about $50 million the company estimates.
Tester, a Democrat, was instrumental in getting the CFAC property on the Superfund National Priority list. Then Congressman Ryan Zinke, a Republican, opposed the move, claiming the cleanup should have state oversight only and a Superfund designation was unnecessary. Zinke is seeking a return to Congress as a second seat has opened.
Separately, a bench trial ended last week in federal court in Missoula, as CFAC sued the Atlantic Richfield Co. ARCO was a former owner at the plant and CFAC argues it’s at least partially responsible for cleanup costs as it dumped the waste on site.
Judge Donald Molloy had not issued a ruling as of presstime.
The lawsuit is allowed under the Superfund law.