Public meeting scheduled on CFAC cleanup

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will host a public meeting on Thursday, Dec. 11, on the current status and next steps in addressing contamination at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company smelter plant.

The public meeting will be held at the Little Theater at Columbia Falls High School from 6 to 8 p.m. The larger venue was needed to accommodate all stakeholders and interested parties across the Flathead.

Topics will include a summary of recent discussions with Glencore, the Swiss-based company that owns the plant, regarding DEQ’s administrative order on consent, an EPA update on additional sampling efforts and the next steps in the cleanup process.

Rob Parker, a site assessment manager at the EPA’s Region 8 offices in Denver, Colo., said additional water quality sampling was conducted last week in residential wells down gradient from the smelter plant.

A concern is the presence of cyanide in groundwater beneath the plant site that has leached out of CFAC landfills. Cyanide is produced in the brick linings of the reduction pots after years of operation. Prior to 1985, spent potliner was buried at the CFAC plant in unlined landfills.

Residential wells on the North Fork Road, Aluminum Drive, Florence Street, Dorothy Street and 12th Street were sampled in April. Two of the wells had indicated the presence of cyanide when sampled in September 2013.

In June, the EPA told the 18 property owners whose wells were sampled that none of the contaminants regulated under the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations were present at or above the maximum contaminant level allowed to be present in a public drinking water system.

“Overall, none of the water samples from the domestic wells had any detections of cyanide,” Parker reported in June, adding that “further investigation at the site is warranted.”

Parker said last week’s sampling was similar in scope to the sampling that took place in April. The difference is that hydrogeological conditions last week were more similar to conditions during sampling that took place in September 2013.

“The April sampling occurred at the start of the spring thaw and run-off, which are likely different conditions than the conditions during September 2013,” he said.