CFAC negotiating with EPA, but ARCO won't

The Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. has agreed to work with the Environmental Protection Agency on an administrative order on consent to clean up its plant here. The order, when finalized, is a legal contract that sets required corrective and cleanup actions for the plant.

One former owner, ARCO, refused to negotiate with the EPA on the order, said Andrew Otis, an attorney for CFAC. The company and EPA will begin negotiating the exact legal framework at the beginning of August.

Otis attended the community liaison panel meeting in Columbia Falls as a guest last week to explain the Superfund listing and give the public an update on the CFAC site status.

"Superfund is a pot of money" that is used to clean up and investigate sites, he said. There are more sites that could be listed than there is money.

A site will be deleted from the Superfund, also called the National Priority List, "when it no longer poses a threat to human health and the environment," he said.

Sometimes the EPA will break a site into units. Some of these units may be removed from the NPL but the site as a whole remains. Some sites have been on the list for over 30 years.

Sites with a national Hazard Ranking System score greater than 28.5 are eligible for the NPL. This score does not determine the degree to which the site is a danger to the environment.

The EPA reported that the CFAC site is 68.39. But both CFAC and ARCO recalculated the data to reach much lower numbers in the 20s.

"EPA did not interpret data correctly," Otis claimed. "They found cyanide where it shouldn't be."

The company doesn't think the cyanide that was found upstream from the plant was related to activities on the plant.

Otis also claimed there could be a stigma stemming from a site being on the list.

"Some studies show individual sites show lower property values," Otis said. "The longest and recent studies show no significant impact on property values."

Panel member Clarence Taber said the community does not want it listed either.

Councilman Dave Petersen asked and Otis confirmed that EPA has the authority to list CFAC as a Superfund site at any time. Otis affirmed that whether it is listed or not, they will still work with EPA.

There is an alternative to the NPL listing in which the responsible party pays for the clean up, Otis said.

Panel member and County Commissioner Phil Mitchell asked why they are not working with the state of Montana. Otis did not give any detailed reasons.

"We didn't feel like it was an arrangement that would work best for us," he said. "We thought the EPA was a much better partner."

Cliff Boyd, director of asset recovery for the demolition company Calbag, gave the panel a short update on the demolition of the site.

They are conducting regulated activities such as removing universal wastes, asbestos abatement and organizing equipment for auction.

Structural demolition will not begin until mid-September, he said.

The auction is July 28-30. Those interested can sign up online at www.rabin.com. It is listed as Aluminum Reduction Plant under auctions.

Moderator Mary Green of Anne Green Communications, a public relations company based in South Charleston, W.Va., suggested having a public open house in the fall on the cleanup.

That topic will be discussed in the next meeting, which is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 13 at 6 p.m. at the North Valley Hospital Teakettle Community Room on Nucleus Avenue.