Montana Sens. Jon Tester and Max Baucus are asking the Environmental Protection Agency to study whether contamination at the closed aluminum plant in Columbia Falls poses a risk to the community or other businesses that might want to locate at the site.
    
Swiss-based commodities trader Glencore AG owns the Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. plant, which has been closed since October 2009.
    
Baucus and Tester have worked with Glencore and the Bonneville Power Administration to get a power contract that might allow the plant to reopen. However, Tester said last week that several times officials negotiated the power contract Glencore sought and the plant remained closed.
    
Earlier this month, the senators asked the EPA to determine if the 120-acre site should be declared a Superfund site, which might create cleanup jobs.