Developer Mick Ruis shared preliminary plans last month for his vision of the former Columbia Falls Aluminum Company property called Teakettle Heights.

He said he’s working with Glencore officials on possible tenants for the site’s commercial space, which would sit on the footprint of the former plant. He considered a data center, but noted it would not bring many jobs to the area and he wanted businesses that would employ people.

The commercial property is about 400 acres.

On the residential side, Phase I covers 75 acres and would have 126 single family homes, 58 townhomes and 240 multi-family units.

Phase II, which is 77 acres, includes 232 single family homes, 123 townhomes and 432 multi-family units.

It also includes sports fields, pickleball and basketball courts, and a baseball field. Both phases straddle Aluminum Drive, with Phase I to the south adjacent to the existing Aluminum City neighborhood and Phase II to the north of Aluminum Drive.

Future expansion would include higher end homes to the north, but it also includes 1,200 acres of recreational lands, which would primarily be to the east along Teakettle Mountain and outside of the actual Superfund site.

Ruis said he hopes to bring plans to the Columbia Falls Planning Commission in early October. The property would be annexed into the city, as it needs municipal sewer and water services to serve that many units.

The city’s water main already runs nearby and sewer would have to be extended to the north to the site, paid for by Ruis. A permit to run the sewer under the BNSF Railway line is already in hand. The city obtained one a few years ago when there was talk of developing an industrial park north of Railroad Street.

Ruis has been clearing land for the project. He bought about 2,200 acres from Glencore, the aluminum company's parent company, in March.

Glencore retains ownership of the landfills at the site, where the Superfund cleanup process is expected to begin in the next few years.

That amounts to about 200 acres.

The west landfill and an area known as the wet scrubber sludge pond have been leaking cyanide and fluoride into the groundwater for decades.

While the water is certainly polluted downstream of the landfills, tests have shown that by the time the groundwater reaches the Flathead River, it’s at very low or non-detect levels.

As a remedy, the company plans on putting a slurry wall of bentonite around the dumps. The hope is the wall contains the waste and eventually the groundwater outside the dumps will be clean. But even so, there will be restrictions on using groundwater at the site.

It will also scrape up contaminated dirt near the old plant and move to the west side landfill as well. The Environmental Protection Agency, earlier this year, signed off on the cleanup plan in its Record of Decision.

It’s estimated the cleanup will cost about $57 million.

There has been no contamination to date of water in local residential wells to the east of the former plant.

The plant started production in 1955 and was one of the community’s largest employers for decades. It ceased aluminum production in 2009 and the plant was demolished beginning in 2016 with completion in 2019.

At one time it was the largest building in Montana.