KALISPELL
– Despite occasional glimpses of hope that the Columbia Falls Aluminum
Co. plant would resume operations, the shuttered facility’s future is
more uncertain than ever as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
begins investigating the site for hazardous pollutants and skepticism
over the prospect of a long-awaited power deal mounts.
And while
officials say neither a federal cleanup nor a site investigation would
automatically preclude the plant from reopening if a deal was brokered,
the scenario seems increasingly unlikely, though not out of the
question.
“We came close a couple times. Most recently we had some
Christmastime hopes that there was going to be an announcement that
they would reopen,” Virginia Sloan of U.S. Sen. Jon Tester’s office told
the Flathead Basin Commission at its meeting Wednesday. “We’ve been
disappointed several times when they led us down a path of hopefulness
and it did not happen. Some folks say it has been idle too long.”
Negotiations
to coordinate a power deal between Glencore, the Swiss commodities
giant that owns the plant, and the Bonneville Power Administration have
plodded along for years without coming to fruition. Meanwhile,
frustration has grown in the beleaguered community of Columbia Falls,
where the plant’s closure in 2009 forced the layoff of nearly 90 workers
as high energy prices and poor market conditions made operations
unprofitable.
The lack of action recently prompted Tester to
publicly criticize Glencore for misleading him, the BPA and the
community of Columbia Falls. In an effort to steer the plant’s future in
a new direction and mitigate potential hazards to the environment and
human health, Tester and fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Max Baucus sent a
letter to the EPA urging a study of contamination levels at the plant to
determine whether it should be declared a Superfund site – a
designation that could create cleanup-related jobs and provide a boon to
the economy.
A Glencore official has agreed to visit the plant
this month, Sloan told the Flathead Basin Commission, which signals that
the company, the largest commodities trading group in the world, may be
taking a serious look at its options, particularly as it may be charged
with footing the bill if a cleanup is warranted.
“At least we
know we’ve got their attention,” Sloan said of the planned site visit by
Glencore official Matthew Lucke, who works out of Glencore’s
headquarters in Switzerland.
The Flathead Basin Commission, which
was formed in 1983 to monitor and protect water quality in the Flathead
Basin, invited Sloan and Julie DalSoglio, director of the EPA’s Montana
office, to update the group on the potential for contamination of soils,
groundwater and air.
The Montana senators requested an evaluation
of the 120-acre industrial area because it has not been inspected since
1988 and may pose a threat to the community and jeopardize future
economic development. The plant continued to operate for more than two
decades after the most recent inspection.
Officials with the EPA
and the Montana Department of Environmental Quality agreed that another
inspection of the smelter plant was overdue, and said they will work
closely with the public to keep them formed.
“I hope there is a
robust, transparent opportunity for the public to be very involved in
this process. Communication is really key, and that is one thing that
EPA has promised,” Sloan said.
EPA officials will assess risks
posed by the plant’s decades-long handling of hazardous materials,
including cyanide, zinc and a host of other raw materials common in
industrial use. The agency will gather environmental data from the
plant’s solvent landfills and wastewater ponds that handled plant
discharge.
The initial investigation, slated to begin this summer,
will likely take one year, DalSoglio said, while an additional year
will be spent assessing the data and reviewing public comment. The EPA
could spend another two years on enforcement actions and cleanup
approval; depending on the complexity of the site, the actual cleanup
could require between two and five years, she said.
http://missoulian.com/news/local/columbia-falls-aluminum-s-reopening-increasingly-uncertain/article_b15f9f0e-a251-11e2-bab4-001a4bcf887a.html
