Public meetings being held to discuss Columbia Falls Aluminum Company site

COLUMBIA FALLS — The Columbia Falls Aluminum Company (CFAC) is offering several chances for the community to learn about the current Superfund site project status and proposed remediation plan.

CFAC in partnership with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will offer several public engagement and information sessions on Wednesday, April 24 and Thursday, April 25, 2024.

Numerous people will be available to talk to about the different processes involved in the remediation of the CFAC site. There will also be informational posters with visuals to help clarify what is taking place at the site.

Those with questions about the past or future of the CFAC property can get them answered at the meetings.

“Really talking to people about the remedial investigation to determine the nature and extent of contaminants at the site where they exist, doing some risk assessments to both human health and the environment and then also developing remedial alternatives,” explained EPA CFAC Remedial Project Manager Matt Dorrington.

“So, what are options out there to clean up the site to reduce the risks to human health and the environment? And that's really what we want to talk about is that process all the good work in engineering -- the science behind that and what's brought us here today to what EPA has presented as a preferred alternative for cleanup,” Dorrington continued.

Attendees can drop in at The Hub Downtown in Columbia Falls from 12 p.m. until 5 p.m. on both days. Additionally, there will be a formal presentation followed by a question-and-answer session beginning at 6:30 p.m. each day.

Additional open houses will be held in the future. The dates, times and locations of those meetings have yet to be determined.

It was recently announced that several thousand acres of the CFAC property had been purchased by a local developer.