Anchorage Assembly votes 11-0 to allow water line extension in Birchwood Loop

Anchorage’s Municipal Assembly voted Dec. 19 to allow the city’s water and sewer utility to proceed with preliminary design and engineering on a 3.5-mile extension of a trunk water line in the Birchwood area near Chugiak. The vote was 11-0.

South Birchwood residents who live near the route of the extension had asked for a delay, but the Assembly declined the request and authorized Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility to start work.

Although disappointed in the outcome, Birchwood residents said they were pleased that Assembly members took the time to ask detailed questions and that a dialogue will be established with the municipal water utility on planning for the project.

“The Assembly took a lot of time to understand our concerns, and we appreciate that,” said Gretchen Wehmhoff, who heads the Birch Community Council’s task force on the water extension.

She did fault the Assembly, however, for not having a work session on the issue, which meant its members had to vote without the benefit of detailed information.

“Many members of the assembly do not represent areas with septic systems and wells,” so they lack the understanding of the issues these present for homeowners, Wehmhoff said.

The matter comes back before the Assembly for another approval later this year, once engineering and cost estimates are complete and a poll of local landowners shows a majority are willing to pay for the extension through assessments on property.

Most of the land to be served is owned by Eklutna, Inc., the Alaska Native village corporation for Eklutna, which has extensive landholdings in the area, and the municipality itself. South Birchwood residents are in a minority.

Part of the extension will serve Eklutna’s planned Powder Reserve housing development and will allow development work to begin on an initial phase of that. The part that is controversial is a northern extension of the trunk line that would allow two connections to AWWU’s large Eklutna water pipeline that brings water to the Anchorage area.

Two connections for the new trunk line to the large pipeline are needed, one in the north and one in the south. They will ensure reliability of service and optimum water quality in outlying parts of the planned water distribution system, which would be built after the trunk line is constructed, AWWU general manager Brett Jokela said.

The extension of the line also ensures access to water for fire protection in the area, and the cleared right-of-way for the line will also serve as a fire-break against a wildfire, he said.

“Over the next few months we’ll put together preliminary design and alignments for pipelines, in coordination with the community and private development interests,” Jokela said.

“Once we have good cost information for the projects, which includes a sewer trunk line as well as the water trunk, we’ll ballot the landowners on their willingness to accept the assessment for their share of the projects. If the ballot is approved by the landowners, the assembly will consider establishing a (water improvement) district through an ordinance. We anticipate the ordinance to come before the Assembly as early as mid-summer, 2018,” he said.

Ekutna has developed several residential housing developments on its lands in the Eagle River–Chugiak area, but Powder Ridge will be the largest when fully developed, with the potential for 1,400 new homes. The project would be built in phases, however, to match market demand.

There is a serious housing shortage through most of the Anchorage “bowl” area, mostly due to the scarcity of good building land. Eklutna, which received lands under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, has been moving to develop its lands to meet the regional need for new housing.

Wehmhoff said the Birchwood council is still unhappy that the municipality is not following its own comprehensive plan on the extension. The plan is specific in not allowing an extension of water and sewer service into the larger-size tracts of South Birchwood, which are served by septic systems and water wells, she said.

Wehmhoff also took issue with Assemblywoman Amy Demboski chastising the Birchwood Council for 10 minutes toward the end of the meeting, criticizing the homeowners for spreading misinformation.

Demboski, who represents Eagle River and Chugiak on the Municipal Assembly, was referring to comments residents made before they obtained information from the AWWU, which came in a September briefing for the community council. “All of the information published by the community council, which came after that briefing, was accurate,” Wehmhoff said.

She said it was unfair of Demoski to make critical comments about a local citizen group, her own constituents, in a forum – an Assembly meeting – where people didn’t have a chance to respond.