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Superfund Status for Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. spurs action
Edited by : AL CIRCLE
2 min read
State senator-elect Dee Brown’s Dec. 17 announcement that she had asked the Flathead County commissioners to take the lead in getting the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. smelter site designated as a Superfund site may have caught some state officials by surprise, but it spurred some action.
Two administrators at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said they didn’t anticipate Brown’s announcement. Larry Scusa, bureau chief for DEQ’s Federal Superfund Bureau, said the smelter site had been “flying below the radar” for his department, but he wasn’t sure about the Environmental Protection Agency.
That could be because CFAC’s owner, Glencore, a large Swiss-based commodities valued at more than $60 billion, hasn’t clearly said whether it will or won’t restart the plant, which shut down in 2009. Both Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester have tried to get a new power contract for the smelter from the Bonneville Power Administration, but they report having trouble communicating with Glencore.
Jenny Chambers, a division administrator for DEQ’s Remediation Division, said the agency has been tracking CFAC in a database since before 1984 and also keeps tabs on smelter plant through various air pollution, wastewater discharge and other permits.
When the CFAC plant first began operating in 1955, pot gases were treated in scrubber towers that used water to remove fluoride. The resulting hydrofluoric acid was treated with slaked lime. After removing the solids, the rest of the fluid went to settling ponds north of the plant.
By 1993, CFAC was shipping 6,000 tons of hazardous waste to landfills in Idaho, Oregon and Utah, about half the hazardous waste shipped out of Montana each year. In July 2000, after a lengthy court case, the EPA approved a Texas company for the treatment and disposal of spent potliner.
Two administrators at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality said they didn’t anticipate Brown’s announcement. Larry Scusa, bureau chief for DEQ’s Federal Superfund Bureau, said the smelter site had been “flying below the radar” for his department, but he wasn’t sure about the Environmental Protection Agency.
That could be because CFAC’s owner, Glencore, a large Swiss-based commodities valued at more than $60 billion, hasn’t clearly said whether it will or won’t restart the plant, which shut down in 2009. Both Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester have tried to get a new power contract for the smelter from the Bonneville Power Administration, but they report having trouble communicating with Glencore.
Jenny Chambers, a division administrator for DEQ’s Remediation Division, said the agency has been tracking CFAC in a database since before 1984 and also keeps tabs on smelter plant through various air pollution, wastewater discharge and other permits.
When the CFAC plant first began operating in 1955, pot gases were treated in scrubber towers that used water to remove fluoride. The resulting hydrofluoric acid was treated with slaked lime. After removing the solids, the rest of the fluid went to settling ponds north of the plant.
By 1993, CFAC was shipping 6,000 tons of hazardous waste to landfills in Idaho, Oregon and Utah, about half the hazardous waste shipped out of Montana each year. In July 2000, after a lengthy court case, the EPA approved a Texas company for the treatment and disposal of spent potliner.
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