Highly toxic hazardous wastes found in the old liners of aluminum reduction pots at Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. are the subject of a disposal plan the company will submit to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.

Failure to get the state agency’s approval before addressing the wastes could result in violations under the Montana Hazardous Waste Act, according to agency spokeswoman Lisa Peterson.

“This is to pre-empt that possibility by giving them a chance to prepare an adequate plan that we can approve before they go ahead and start removing waste,” Peterson said.

By not removing the toxic waste within 90 days of its March closure, the company could have faced fines for operating as a hazardous waste storage site without proper permitting. The agreement, signed June 10, gives CFAC 60 days to submit a plan for removing each potliner within 90 days. All of the potliner must be removed within two years of the agreement.

“The plan will tell us how they’ll do things regarding inventory, a safety plan, financial requirements, containers and tracking,” said John Arrigo, the state agency’s enforcement division administrator. “There is no hazardous waste storage permit, but they have to meet all the substantive requirements of that permit.”

Earlier this year, CFAC hired Calbag, an Oregon-based environmental remediation company, to begin demolition of some of the buildings at the site. CFAC spokesman Haley Beaudry said that Calbag would be responsible for submitting the potliner plan.

Peterson said it would not be subject to a public comment period but would be reviewed by the agency before it decides whether to approve it.

The plan, which must be submitted within 60 days, will chart the course for the company to remove the waste prior to demolition of the buildings that still house the reduction pots. It will detail where and how the material will be stored and provide a timeline for transferring the material to one of the two federally permitted potliner disposal facilities in the country.

CFAC used 60-ton steel pots to turn aluminum oxide into aluminum using an electrolysis reaction. The carbon and brick linings of the 600 pots at CFAC (the Environmental Protection Agency lists 451 pots remaining in the plant) absorbed a range of toxic chemical compounds.

When the pot failed, the lining was replaced, and the old potliner is federally classified as a hazardous waste containing cyanide, fluoride, toxic metals and a group of organic compounds called “polyclic aromatic hydrocarbons,” according to the EPA.

The agency’s website states that about 100,000 tons of spent potliner material is generated by the aluminum industry each year.

Once the potliner is separated from the pot during the cleanup process, the clock starts ticking on the 90-day limit before the company is technically storing hazardous waste on-site without a permit. For every day extra that the waste remains, it will be fined $1,000.

State hazardous waste program manager Mark Hall confirmed the company has received one permit thus far, for removal of asbestos at one of the buildings to be demolished.

Calbag’s demolition crews so far have processed 4,500 tons of steel cut from buildings and infrastructure with a 700-ton shearer, according to Cliff Boyd, director of asset recovery for the demolition company.

Boyd said an auction to sell off surplus equipment is set for the end of July.

As part of an ongoing effort to improve dialogue between the community and Glencore, CFAC’s parent company, Glencore, selected a panel of community members to hold monthly public meetings in Columbia Falls. The next meeting is July 9 at 6 p.m at the Columbia Falls Community Center across from Smith’s Grocery.

Reporter Samuel Wilson can be contacted at 758-4407 or by email at swilson@dailyinterlake.com