Going deep on the CFAC cleanup

Going deep is an essential next step in order for Columbia Falls and Flathead County residents to begin to really understand and raise meaningful questions about the proposed leave-the-toxic waste-in-place cleanup plan for the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) Superfund site. And going deep is exactly what the Coalition for a Clean CFAC is busy doing now thanks to recent support funding for consultants to help us track down and better understand the complex data that is buried within some 10,000 pages of technical documents, which are the supporting studies for this proposed cleanup plan. 

As Matt Dorrington, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Remedial Project Manager for the CFAC Superfund site, has challenged us to do, we are looking for critical gaps in information within these technical documents compiled to support the proposed cleanup plan, that could lead to a revised and more acceptable community cleanup plan. Already we are seeing some important issues that deserve additional review and are working hard to compile the research to support this call for some additional focused feasibility studies before EPA moves forward with a final decision. What we need now more than anything is time from EPA to do this work. So far EPA has been very supportive of giving us and the community more time, acknowledging that community acceptance of the final cleanup plan is a benchmark that EPA works hard to achieve. Through EPA’s Technical Assistance Services for Communities (TASC) Program, we (and the community) are being provided services through a national EPA contract. 

As the EPA web site states, “Under the contract, a contractor provides scientists, engineers and other professionals to review and explain information to communities.” In mid-August and again in September and October, we plan to host what we are calling some mutual-learning opportunities in the form of interactive exchanges with the community at large to share what we are finding and to hear more from the community where you see the need to take action to better ensure that the final cleanup plan for the CFAC superfund site is good for the community, the environment, and the local economy. This deep dive into these records is spurred by the simple fact that the proposed leave-the-toxic-waste-in-place cleanup plan is failing to pass the public’s widespread healthy skepticism that the current proposal will be protective, over the long-term, of the public’s health, safety and welfare. 

The proposed cleanup plan was drafted by CFAC and its consultants and is now awaiting final adoption, or final adoption with changes, by the Denver office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). To date strong public opposition to the plan has been raised by over 2000 residents petitioning and asking for more time to study and evaluate the plan, with similar concerns raised by the City of Columbia Falls, Flathead County, the Environmental Quality Council of the legislature, and thirteen conservation-related nonprofits. 

The Coalition for a Clean CFAC is led by a small all volunteer steering committee comprised of Flathead County residents with a variety of backgrounds and expertise. Please email us at coalition@cleancfac.org to discuss how you might help with some of this research or to ask that we give attention to an area of particular concern to you. Our mission is to secure the comprehensive cleanup of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) Superfund site for the health, enjoyment, and economic benefit of the local community and the protection of the Flathead watershed. 

EPA, MT DEQ and CFAC representatives will be back in Columbia Falls July 17 and 18 to host another open house at The Hub. They will be offering one-on-one conversations, providing similar information as to that made available at their April meetings in Columbia Falls as well as the June site visits. The July 17 open houses are 12-3 p.m. and 5-8 p.m., and EPA will have a booth at the CF Farmers' Market on Thursday evening, July 18 (5-8 p.m.) These drop in sessions can be a good place to hear from agency and company representatives, on what they have done and studied to date. 

Project Manager John Stroiazzo of CFAC was recently quoted in the Flathead Beacon in regard to questions about the stability and protective capability of the proposed massive “slurry walls” to contain the toxic waste on site at CFAC, given the gravely glacial till soil of the CFAC site. “All of our experts are quite confident that this will work quite well.” The Coalition for a Clean CFAC is appreciative and respectful of such assurances, but believes it is vital now for the community to have time to go deep and look for independent analysis of such assertions, while also examining the data used to support assertions like this. 

Let’s go deep, take time, and make sure in the end that the community comes together around the best cleanup strategy for CFAC. 

– Mayre Flowers and Shirley Folkwein, on behalf of the Coalition for a Clean CFAC’s Board