Where are the rallies for CFAC today?
By RICHARD HANNERS
Hungry Horse News
The aluminum plant in Columbia Falls has survived bad times, and twice the Flathead Valley community rallied to save the plant from closing.
Both times high electrical prices and shortages threatened the plant's viability. Now, with a power crisis extending up and down the West Coast and most of Pacific Northwest aluminum plants off line, including Columbia Falls Aluminum Co., the question posed is - where is the community support now?
Answers given by community leaders who acted to save the plant in the early 1980s and 1990s range across the political and economic spectrum. Some blame the old nemesis - the Bonneville Power Administration - while others see a lack of local leadership. And some see a fundamental difference in the power market.
In August 1982 BPA proposed raising rates for the region's aluminum plants by 46 percent at a time when international aluminum prices had dropped 39 percent. Montana's Congressional delegation sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking that the hike be delayed, and plant workers organized a petition drive that collected nearly 2,500 signatures.
Lee Smith, the plant's technical operations manager at the time, said there was a strong chance the plant would shut down. BPA had raised prices 750 percent since 1979. Regional aluminum plants began curtailing production by 1983 as their power bills exceeded 83 percent of the world's aluminum smelters.
In March 1985, with the plant's owner, ARCO, closing down its Anaconda Co. mines and smelters across the state, a grassroots group was organized in Columbia Falls called We Want The Plant. Led by Columbia Falls Mayor Colleen Allison, the group rallied the community in preparation for a BPA public hearing at the Columbia Falls High School gymnasium on April 22.
The April 22 event was described as "one of the most important public meetings in Columbia Falls history" by Mark Smith, representing Sen. Max Baucus. Over 3,200 people crowded into the gym to hear Gov. Ted Schwinden, Sen. John Melcher, Rep. Pat Williams, state legislators, and local and county political leaders.
We Want The Plant eventually changed its name to People For Jobs. Members Judy Berardi and Don McMillan traveled to Washington, D.C. and throughout the Pacific Northwest, gathering 21,000 signatures on a petition to keep the region's aluminum industry alive.
This first community effort paid off. ARCO sold the plant to Brack Duker and Jerome Broussard, and the plant prospered through the late 1980s. By 1993, however, with international aluminum prices severely depressed, BPA proposed hiking rates as much as 25 percent.
BPA had two problems - drought forced a 25 percent power curtailment to the region's aluminum plants, and independent power generators competed with BPA in the newly deregulated West Coast power market. BPA management felt it needed to raise rates to make up for lost revenue, but higher rates meant stiffer competition from independent generators.
The Flathead Valley community rallied once again, and on June 1, 1993 BPA Administrator Randy Hardy faced 1,500 people in the Columbia Falls High School gym. Local supporters sported a badge that read "10 percent or less," and others attacked BPA plans to spill water from Columbia River dams to help salmon.
A month later, Sen. Baucus described the impact of the hearing by saying "the lion's share of the credit goes to the people of Columbia Falls" for successful rate negotiations with BPA. Lee Smith said, "I have to believe the meeting in Columbia Falls had some impact. I'm convinced it did."
Of all the people involved in the plant's 50-year history, Lee Smith likely is the expert. He began working at the plant's lab when Anaconda first fired up the smelter in 1955, and he held numerous technical and management positions over the years, including plant manager. For a time he represented the company in its power negotiations.
The energy situation in 2001 is different than in the past, Smith said in a recent interview. In the past BPA had access to plenty of power, except in time of drought when it could go to the open market if necessary. He credited Sen. Baucus with helping the plant successfully negotiate with BPA, but emphasized that BPA had more flexibility then.
Today, he said, BPA has oversold its capacity and open market prices are too high. Compounding these problems is another drought. "A huge outpouring of community support will not help the situation," Smith said. "BPA is between a rock and a hard place."
Colleen Allison, mayor of Columbia Falls from 1982 through 1990 and a council member for 12 years, is often credited with being the driving force behind community support for the plant. She worked as a secretary at the plant in 1950s and now works for Kootenai County government in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.
"I'm still very interested in what's going on," Allison said. "Columbia Falls is still very dear to me." Organizing community support in the past "was a marvelous thing to see," Allison said. "Everybody was interested, so it was easy to put together."
She said Gov. Ted Schwinden worked with her daily. "It was a positive effort because everyone wanted the same thing - city, county, state - there were no dissenters."
Fearing that the regional aluminum plants might never start up again after being closed for two years, Allison said she has contacted Montana and Idaho congressional delegates about the current situation. She continues to harbor distrust in BPA and called for maintaining a close watch on the government agency. "If I was 20 years younger, I would take on the BPA again."
Steve Marquesen, as a member of the Columbia Falls Chamber of Commerce, saw promoting community support for the plant as "my job." He credits Allison as the strong rallying force. "She got me to do things," he said, and he continues to maintain contact with her.
BPA actions were regarded as "heavy handed" by locals, Marquesen said. The agency was attempting to pay off debt from its involvement in the "Whoops fiasco," he said, referring to several failed nuclear plants developed by WPPSS, the Washington Public Power Supply System.
The local economy was not so diversified then, he said, and the aluminum plant directly or indirectly accounted for more than 3,000 jobs. Marquesen said local business leaders were surprised by the extent of the economic impact and quickly joined the cause.
Plant workers fearing layoffs rallied to support the company, but today laid-off workers are getting paid not to work, Marquesen said. The power market is different today. "It's hard to fight city hall now," he said. "I believe the community is still supportive of the plant, but we don't know what to do."
Roger Elliot was a state senator in 1983 when he introduced legislation in support of the aluminum plant. He said things are different now, but he continues to distrust the BPA which "hasn't seen the full wrath of the public yet." He hopes FERC will step in to help control power prices.
Elliot said the idea that the local economy is more diversified now is "absolutely wrong." He called the emphasis on tourism a "Hollywood economy" and stressed the importance of aluminum plant jobs to the valley.
Another state senator during the earlier plant crises was John Harp, who co-sponsored legislation with Bob Brown that reduced property taxes for the plant in an effort to keep it afloat. He said the importance of the plant's jobs on the local and state economy is more important now than ever before as Montana's per capita income continues spiraling down.
Harp said the community is more fragmented than in the past. He blamed lack of stable management at the plant, and he said the plant's long-term goals are not being communicated to the public.
Recent drops in open market power prices encourages Harp's relentless optimism. People should not "close the chapter" on the aluminum plant, he said. "We can't afford to close industrial plants in the country," he said. "We can't compete with other nations if we can't produce aluminum."
Alida Wright, a School District 6 employee, remembers Harp's property tax bill as a double-edged sword - it helped keep the plant afloat but increased taxes for residents. Residents were willing to absorb the tax increase then, she said, but maybe not now.
There were 1,100 workers at the plant then, she said, which created a big impact on the local economy while generating a big tax base for schools. Columbia Falls alone could not supply that many workers, and many workers lived in Whitefish, Kalispell and the rest of the valley.
Regarding today's power problems, Wright said, "Frankly, there's not a whole lot we can do about it, but back then there was." She said valley residents were tired of hearing that the plant might close down, but the economic significance of the plant has not diminished.
Jack Canavan was plant spokesman through those troubled times. "Other aluminum plants in the Northwest have always been amazed at the amount of support the people of Columbia Falls demonstrated for the plant over power issues," he said. "When you think about it, it was amazing."
Canavan believes more support is out there. "I don't doubt that they would continue to demonstrate that support if needed today."
R. Glenn Kennedy helped build the aluminum plant in the early 1950s and retired after working there for 30 years. He became involved in We Want The Plant because "the power company wanted to put us out of business," he said. "In this town, it's the aluminum plant and Plum Creek and that's it."
Kennedy believes the plant will start up again. He said the plant's reduction pots are "good producers" and the plant has a good work force that has never gone on strike. "It all depends on management, if they don't know their onions," he said.