The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2016 designated a Superfund site on the 1,300 acre parcel that held the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company. The smelter closed years earlier and left behind hazardous chemicals harmful to human health and the environment, like cyanide, fluoride and heavy metals.
In a decision published earlier this month, the agency said it will contain the waste underground on-site inside reinforced concrete called a “slurry wall.” This option was chosen amidst several alternatives, and is supported by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality.
But a local group, the Coalition for a Clean CFAC called the EPA’s decision a failure that could pollute the entire watershed, including the Flathead River. The coalition wanted the site’s owner, mining company Glencore, to remove the toxic soil completely.
Shirley Folkwein is on the coalition’s board.
"Once they build that slurry wall, it might stop the flow of the contaminants into the groundwater, but the currently contaminated groundwater will remain contaminated," she says.
Folkwein says the decision goes against the hundreds of comments EPA received from the public asking for removal of the waste.
With the record of decision issued, the state and federal government will draft details of the plan and will open it for public comment before finalizing. The containment project is expected to take 2-4 years to complete.
