Battle continues with Mat River

One evacuated building swept away overnight July 18. In six days, the Matanuska River ate 80 feet into our neighbor’s property across the highway at Mile 64, Glenn Highway, Sutton. Seen from space, this is one of three large glacial fed rivers in the borough with banks popular for cabins.

I said, “Bill! We need to know the owner! That pallet of fertilizer has herbicide!” Carla Web, State Department of Environmental Conservation said, “We can only respond when the spill occurs.”

Theresa at the Mat-Su Borough Code Compliance said, “Because of the way the codes work, there’s nothing we can do about it other than document it.” The borough can contact the owner, but Emergency Manager Casey Cook was in England and delayed for days.

The main buildings remained locked. Two sheds drifted away at 15 mph. I hauled back hundreds of pounds of goods from the woods amid the river’s oceanic growl. Sunshine sustained the muddy melt. My husband helped when he came home from work.

By Tuesday morning, a fourth building split in half. One of its two rooms hung on the bank. The owner’s representative arrived, but valuables were dangerously out of reach and the power was still on. He was surprised that the week before all looked normal.

He also found a fifth 20x24 building undercut at the door. Without a screw gun, he beat a hole in the double plywood wall, but could not enter. It stored construction tools, plywood, and more fertilizer and animal repellent bought in case sales.

He went for tools. In that time, the river undercut half of it, becoming too dangerous. It tipped. The leading end lodged in the 6-foot deep main current. It’s rear jutted up above its inset hill.

Then Cook made contact. He promised the owner a Dumpster, but it didn’t show at the arranged time and no one canceled. Tuesday evening the building slid a little. It had no floor and dropped some products. We salvaged them. I heard an early dawn deafening crash. A wall remained, half in the river.

One product, Grant’s Animal Repellent, 2 pounds, reads, “This pesticide is toxic to fish. Do not apply directly to water.” It has Naphthalene 15 percent, an EPA possible carcinogen. Another is Mosquito Coils with D-Allethrin, highly toxic to aquatic organisms (pesticideinfo.org).

Other product labels state these precautions: “Do not rinse/empty container or sprayer within 30 feet of waterway” (Plantskydd blood); “Do not spray directly on humans or animals” (Grant’s mustard); “Never place unused product down any indoor or outdoor drain” (Ro-Pel irritant).

The building stored about 1,000 pounds of 21-3-10 Bayer Tree Food II, with 2.9 ppm of arsenic. EPA has set the arsenic standard for drinking water at .010 ppm.

A sixth 10x10 structure went in full of cement. The owner and I saved heirlooms from a seventh 12x20 building. Later it floated neatly away.

We needed help. We didn’t know who to call. Bruised, blistered and bushed, I barely had time for bed. The owner loaded his truck. I moved stuff away from the munching river. The pallet of fertilizer with herbicide I reported the first day was still in the woods.

A state worker looked at the fertilizer and said the river has so much water it doesn’t matter. Others said the rotting bags were impossible to move.

The pallet weighted the roots of two giant leaning spruce trees undercut by the river. My environmental voice said, “Lift one bag.” It has 0.28 percent prodiamine, an EPA possible carcinogen. I found it easy and frantically set 60 bags on a pile of lumber. I stepped back and soon the trees splashed in.

We hauled the bags out of the woods and stockpiled them on overgrowth in the driveway. The overgrowth turned black.

For their help removing the fertilizer and garbage we thank Sutton people: Eaglecrest Alaska Missions youth challenge, Laura Overby, Mark and Nancy Bertels, and others who helped. We thank the Mat-Su Borough for free Sunday dump for threatened residences.

Charlene Schmidtkunz lives in Sutton.