Citizens for a Better Flathead works to foster informed and active citizen participation in the decisions shaping the Flathead's future, and to champion the democratic principles, sustainable solutions, and shared vision necessary to keep the Flathead Special Forever. Since 1992 we have been working to secure policies that will keep the Flathead the place we love as it changes and grows.
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Located on the bank of the Flathead River, the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) opened in 1955 and began annually burying or discharging at this site what has grown to be massive volumes of highly toxic waste including cyanide, fluoride, lead, PAHs and more according to numerous reports. In 2009 the plant closed and in 2016 it was listed as a Super Fund Site on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Super Fund National Priorities List. Click here to read some of the history of CFAC.
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Please join us in asking the EPA to revisit its proposed Cleanup Plan for the CFAC Superfund Site, which calls for leaving the hazardous landfill contents in place and surrounding the waste with an expensive 100 ft deep "slurry wall" and a new cap, but nothing to seal the bottom. Groundwater has been known to climb higher than the bottom of the landfill during spring runoff, meaning the cyanide-laced waste in the landfill would continue to mix with groundwater. Removing the waste and transporting it to an approved landfill in Arlington, Oregon, might cost three times as much as the containment option, but removal of these wastes has had the courageous support of the Columbia Falls City Council and it has ours too!
It's time to hold the corporations who extracted years of profit from CFAC, while failing to prevent decades of massive contamination of the soils and water at this site responsible for paying for their long-time failure to protect the Flathead's water quality and the long-term viability and health of this land.
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Greetings!
The next five-ten minutes you need to spend to send comments to the EPA on their proposed cleanup plan of the highly contaminated Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) site northeast of Columbia Falls along the Flathead River, may be one of the most important opportunities you have to insist on better protection of the Flathead's water quality at this site for decades to come. (see suggested comments below)
The EPA recommended solution primarily calls for containing and maintaining these toxic wastes on site for more than 30-years. Your comments are needed to urge the EPA to:
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Remove the buried toxic contaminates at the CFAC superfund site away from the Flathead River to an approved landfill built to handle such toxic waste as in Arlington, Oregon;
- Require more extensive, annual, and comprehensive monitoring of the CFAC site along with the complete treatment of contaminated groundwater and ponds;
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Secure additional testing at the site and EPA's commitment to long-term full restoration of this 960-acre industrial superfund site.
*Note that far greater removal of toxic waste was accomplished at the Milltown/Clark Fork River designated EPA Superfund site near Missoula. Initial plans to contain waste on that site were abandoned and over 3-million tons of contaminated sediment were removed to a safer location far from the River, following a series of historic floods and ice jams causing unanticipated dispersal of sediments over a larger stretch of the River, and in response to a "flood" of public comment, like is needed now on the CFAC planned cleanup. It is estimated in the CFAC cleanup plan, that there are 1.2 million cubic yards/1.3 million tons of heavily contaminated waste that would need to still be moved from the CFAC site. Early stages of the clean-up of the CFAC site have already removed some 26,000 tons of pot liners containing cyanide and fluoride and another 2,750 tons of asbestos.
A critically important on-line and written public comment period is open until Thursday, August 31st.
See suggested comments below.
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Your comments can be as brief as this suggested comment below: (feel free to copy and paste this as your comment)
I feel the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company Superfund site proposed cleanup plan, which includes leaving a massive volume of toxic waste in place without a plan for removal, or a plan for long-term full remediation of the Columbia Falls Aluminum Plant site, is an unacceptable clean-up plan. I urge you to give careful consideration to the numerous questions that are being raised during this comment period by former CFAC employees, organizations, scientists, and agency and local government officials. Consider these to be my questions as well.
Please explain in more detail how leaving this toxic waste in place, despite all the questions being raised during this comment period and previously, will better protect the health, safety, and welfare of current and future generations of residents of the Flathead as well as the health of the Flathead River and Flathead Lake ecosystems? Leaving cost to the companies and government out of the evaluation criteria, how could that change the outcome of your recommendations for this cleanup proposal? Explain why costs factors have been given greater weight than the health, safety, and welfare of current and future generations of residents of the Flathead as well as the health of the Flathead River and Flathead Lake ecosystems?
Far greater removal of toxic waste was accomplished at the Milltown/Clark Fork River designated EPA Superfund site near Missoula, MT. Initial plans to contain waste on that site were abandoned and over 3-million tons of contaminated sediment were removed to a safer location far from the River. It is estimated in the recent CFAC clean up plan that there are 1.2 million cubic yards/1.3 million tons (a far smaller amount) of heavily contaminated waste that would need to still be moved from the CFAC site. Early stages of the CFAC cleanup site have already removed some 26,000 tons of pot liners containing cyanide and fluoride and another 2,750 tons of asbestos. If some removal from the site has already been accomplished why can't the remaining 1.3 million tons also be removed to an out of state landfill designed specifically for this purpose? Why was removal acceptable for the Milltown/Clark Fork River site and not the CFAC site?
Sincerely,--include your name and address
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We of course encourage you to add additional questions and comments as you see fit and as your time allows. We are still finalizing our more detailed and many page list of questions for EPA and hope to share those with you on Monday. Note: The EPA has said that comments should be in the form of questions about the cleanup plan as opposed to general comments of support or lack of support.
The Thursday August 31st deadline is quickly approaching—and brief comments supporting questions being raised by others are super important. Please send your comments now!
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Thank you for speaking up now, and in the future, for solutions that hold those responsible for failing to protect our water and natural resources from contamination accountable. Thanks for insisting that expensive clean up costs for those who pollute are not a basis for settling for mere containment of pollution as opposed to full restoration. |
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Your support for our on-going work to keep the Flathead the amazing place that it is greatly appreciated! Click Here to Donate.
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