Another CFAC update meeting next week

A community meeting on Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. Superfund cleanup is set for 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 27 at The Hub at 533 First Avenue East in Columbia Falls.

The public is encouraged to attend to hear about an update the cleanup status as representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the company and the state Department of Environmental Quality will be on hand.

A specific topic of discussion will be the recently released Unilateral Administrative Order.

Under the UAO,  CFAC is required to prepare a biological assessment and perform consultation under the Endangered Species Act as well as complete certain limited remedial design work. These activities will be carried out under EPA and DEQ oversight. Information gathered during field events under the UAO will help inform final remedial designs

The  UAO outlines that work in a 300-plus page document that’s available online at: http://semspub.epa.gov/work/08/100017570.pdf

You can also access it and other key links at the main CFAC EPA page at: umulis.epa.gov/supercpad/CurSites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0800392&msspp=med

The EPA released its record of decision in January. That calls for scraping up contaminated soils at the site and putting them on top of existing landfills. They would then be capped and the worst landfills and dumps, the wet scrubber sludge pond and the west landfill, will be surrounded by a slurry wall. The wall, made of bentonite, a clay that hardens like cement, is designed to stop groundwater contaminated with high concentrations of fluoride and cyanide from leaking from the dumps.

The dumps have been leaking since at least the 1990s.

The next step in the cleanup process is to negotiate a consent decree with the company, the EPA and the DEQ. Those talks are currently in the works. The decree, a legally binding document, will be subject to public scrutiny when it is completed.

One public concern about the site has been “forever chemicals” which weren’t, by the EPA’s own admission, looked at in previous studies. A former plant engineer claims they should be in abundance at the site.

Most of the land owned by CFAC has since been sold to developer Mick Ruis of Columbia Falls. He bought the land outside of the actual Superfund site, about 2,200 acres.

He already has plans for housing on about 150 acres along Aluminum Drive, while more than half, about 1,200 acres, is slated for open space.

From the EPA’s side of things, expect new faces. Allie Archer is now listed as project manager, apparently replacing Matt Dorrington, who has been with the project for the past few years.