Borough assembly passes gravel ordinance with little tweaking

PALMER - The Mat-Su Borough Assembly re-approved its new rules for gravel mining Tuesday.

An ordinance addressing reclamation standards and rules for mining into the water table passed Dec. 6. But after it passed, Assemblyman Noel Woods brought the issue up again, saying that with all the changes the assembly made to the ordinance, he wanted to see the full, modified version before voting to approve it.

The assembly agreed to reconsider the ordinance, but there was some opposition to further changes.

"He wanted to see it in its completed form. That was a good rationale. I don't feel that opens the door to change what you've done," assemblyman Darcie Salmon said.

Assemblyman Jim Colver agreed.

"I'm afraid that all the hard work we put into it we'll end up unraveling it," Colver said.

The assembly decided to make changes, mostly minor ones. Assemblyman Ron Arvin tweaked an exemption to the requirement to get a gravel permit. As the ordinance stood, anyone removing less than 2,000 cubic yards of gravel a year doesn't need a permit.

Arvin said he thought the intention the night the ordinance passed was to make it so "the exemption is revoked when operations proceed within four feet of the seasonal high water table."

The assembly agreed to that without much debate. A change Vern Halter asked for wasn't as successful. Halter wanted to knock that exemption down from 2,000 cubic yards to 1,000.

"This is why I voted against reconsideration. Here we're getting into setting more policy," Colver said before arguing that a 2,000-cubic-yard exemption allows small-time developers more freedom to work in remote areas of the borough.

Noel Woods also opposed Halter's change.

"If you make it too restrictive, it's extremely difficult for a small-pit operator to keep track day by day of what's coming and going," he said.

Halter said he thought it was an issue of fairness, noting that the cost to get a permit is several thousand dollars and operations not much larger than 2,000 cubic yards have to get one, but those just a tiny bit smaller do.

Another substantive change had to do with how steep gravel pit operators can leave hills in reclaimed pits after dirt has been laid down and grass planted.

The ordinance had it at a 15 percent grade. Woods wanted to add hills could alternatively be left at the "angle of repose," which he defined as "the steepest angle material can be piled without slumping."

Colver suggested that a steep slope might allow a kid to climb up it but give them trouble getting down.

"I don't know how this affects safety," he said. "If they're going to leave it in the condition I think we want to be safe."

Borough Planner Alex Strawn said he actually liked the change, telling the assembly it added for greater flexibility in the reclamation process.

Though the ordinance, once amendments were through, passed without objection, Assemblyman Warren Keogh said in his closing comments that he needed to bring it back up. He hadn't made an amendment he'd intended to offer.

"I was temporarily asleep at the wheel," Keogh told his colleagues.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.