The Columbia Falls Aluminum Company will start doing further testing and more environmental investigation at the Superfund site north of Columbia Falls starting this fall and running into December, the company said recently.

The idea is to get some of the preliminary work for the cleanup done this year as the company negotiates a consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality.

Once the decree is finalized, it goes through the U.S. Department of Justice and is then approved by a U.S. District Court judge.

The decree lays out the legal parameters for the cleanup as well as future monitoring and other specifics for the long defunct aluminum plant site.

The preliminary work, known as an Unilateral Administrative Order, will cost ab

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