CFAC should have to haul away waste
On June 1, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency publicly released its proposed action for cleaning up the CFAC Superfund site in Columbia Falls. The EPA accepted the preferred alternative in the remedial investigation and feasibility study released in 2020 and 2021 by Roux Environmental Engineering and Geology, the contractor hired by Glencore, the Swiss-based global commodities company that owns the closed aluminum smelter site.
Instead of digging up the mixed waste in the West Landfill that is contaminated by cyanide and fluoride, and sludge in the Wet Scrubber Pond that is contaminated by fluoride, and then hauling the waste to a certified landfill in Oregon, a slurry wall 100-125 feet deep will be built to prevent groundwater from flowing into the two sites. An impermeable cap will also be installed over the two sites to prevent infiltration by rainwater, but nothing will be done about the bottoms of the landfill and the sludge pond, meaning seasonally high groundwater will be able to reach the waste, especially the West Landfill which is very deep.
The proposed action could take 6-12 months to fully plan and 1-2 construction seasons to fully build out at an estimated cost of $57 million. The alternative calling for digging up and hauling away the contaminated waste to an approved out-of-state landfill was rejected by Roux and the EPA because of hazardous threats posed to workers and communities during removal and transportation. The cost of that alternative was so high it was never estimated.
It’s worth noting that Glencore and all the preceding smelter owners that are responsible for dealing with the contaminated soils and groundwater are also the companies that brought all the necessary raw materials to Columbia Falls to make money smelting aluminum – from alumina, Sumitomo ramming paste and synthetic cryolite to coal tar pitch and petroleum coke used to make anode briquets. These raw materials were either hazardous when they were shipped to Columbia Falls, or they became hazardous during the smelting process. For example, during the life of a smelter pot, carbon paste turned into cyanide.
The EPA should have demanded that the hazardous materials these companies brought to Montana should be shipped back out of state. The agency didn’t even request a solid cost estimate. If the cost of removing the waste is high, then the acquisition of an aluminum smelter was a bad business decision on their part. But I think these companies made a ton of money.
Richard Hanners
John Day, Oregon