Borough sues construction firm over landfill

WASILLA — A long-standing enforcement issue involving an unlicensed landfill and gravel pit in the Meadow Lakes area has ended up in court.

B & E Construction operated a gravel pit and landfill at 4603 North Pittman Road. At one point, the pit provided gravel for a borough-administered construction project on frontage roads adjacent to the Parks Highway.

According to a motion for preliminary injunction filed in May, B & E began accepting construction and demolition debris for disposal starting in 2008. The property’s continued operation without a license is a public nuisance, and the business — jointly operated by John Emmi and Steve Bargabos — should be closed, according to the court documents.

In 2011, borough officials received a complaint that garbage was being buried on the property, but took no enforcement action because the dump wasn’t believed to be a commercial enterprise, according to the filing.

“At that juncture, we believed B & E’s activities were an Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (“DEC”) matter, rather than a borough matter,” one part of the motion reads.

When borough officials investigated another complaint in 2014, borough ordinance enforcement officer Pam Ness observed “piles and piles of junk and trash disposed at the property,” according to the affidavit.

Ness issued an enforcement order in April 2014 requiring them to cease operating as a junkyard and apply for the required permit, according to the complaint. State officials followed suit about two weeks later, according to the motion.

“The defendant, after receiving erroneous advice six years ago that no permit was required if the waste was not covered, was disposing of C & D waste from home demolitions at the described property and leaving the waste uncovered,” the state’s notice of violation reads, as quoted by the borough.

When state officials issued a notice substantially similar to the borough’s, officials did not issue citations, because they believed state officials would control enforcement. They also didn’t enforce portions of their order, believing the state’s order superseded it, according to the filing.

“The borough also refrained from issuing citations for B & E’s violation of the Enforcement Order — it’s failure to submit a timely and proper application to maintain a junkyard/refuse area,” the filing reads.

Borough officials did monitor the property periodically, and discovered additional developments at the property. During a July 2015 site visit, Ness discovered B & E had apparently set up an impound yard for vehicles, which contained about 30 “junk vehicles,” according to the filing.

The vehicles surfaced during hearings in October and November 2015, when B & E sought to obtain a conditional use permit for the property to operate, after state officials determined that land use — not environmental contamination — was the primary issue at the property. Borough planning clerk Mary Brodigan and development services officer Alex Strawn testified via written affidavit that B & E did not address the issue of junk vehicles before the planning commission.

Both the borough planning commission and assembly voted to reject a conditional use permit for the property by early 2016. A site visit in February found that some materials remained on site, but didn’t contain significant asbestos levels. As recently as November 2015, officials told borough officials they were planning to keep scrap metal, tires, and junk vehicles on-site to get better prices for them.

As a result, borough officials filed for an injunction ordering the business remove all tires, metal and junk vehicles, to board up buildings kept on the property, and to allow borough officials an opportunity to inspect the property.

A call to a listed number for B & E Construction was abruptly terminated Friday. Past messages left at the company have not been returned. The file did not contain an answer to the borough’s complaint.

Contact Reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.