Borough needs to be clear on monofill flap

We had a sit-down last week with a quartet of neighbors concerned about the idea of filling in a decommissioned gravel pit with construction waste.

Line by line, they went through a story we recently published and responded to the claims Central Monofill Services made about its project. We’re digesting the material they gave us now. Look for a story in the coming days.

This issue has consumed a lot of our time over the last year, and it seems to be a quintessentially Mat-Su story. On one hand is a company wanting to do what people have done for years in the Valley — operate an industrial business in a spot that had previously been home to industrial operations. On the other hand is a group of neighbors in what has become a fairly well developed part of the Mat-Su Borough.

Gateway, as the community is called, sits right off the Glenn Highway at its interchange with the Parks Highway. There is a network of lakes back there, some of which include the popular Kepler-Bradley Lakes.

While that now-defunct gravel operation existed for decades, a neighborhood has now grownup nearby. Those homes and land have value, too.

Given its proximity to this lake system and well-established community of neighbors, is a monofill a compatible use of this land?

There was a time when nobody would have blinked an eye. Indeed, there’s a very similar facility close by in the neighborhoods near the Alaska State Fairgrounds.

This is far from the only industrial plot where a neighborhood has grown up around it; this situation is a familiar scenario for us in the Mat-Su.

That is why we have been paying so much attention to the Central Monofill story. It’s crucial that our borough leaders get this one right.

The Valley has seen its share of these growth-fueled conflicts, and we will continue to see them as our population expands. Perhaps population density is a way to help us map appropriate land uses “growing” forward.

CMS views itself as a recycling company. It diverts construction waste from landfills by selling the steel and concrete and other products. What it wants to dump in Palmer is the stuff it can’t sell — ground up Sheetrock and lumber.

We need places to take that kind of material. The Mat-Su Borough Central Landfill takes it. But CMS would like to save on dump fees, which might not be a bad thing if it allows an expansion of recycling construction materials.

But we also understand why neighbors might worry. When operated as a gravel pit, the area had water issues with lakes changing levels and water pouring out of punctured aquifers.

We’re not sure what the right call is here. Nor do we envy the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission and the assembly when it comes to making this decision.

Whatever the outcome, this is an opportunity to develop clear, sustainable policy that can be used the next time industrial uses encroach on now-developed areas.

Because there will be a next time.