Commission states reasons for permit denial

PALMER — Among other things, the project will spread trash around the neighborhood and could contaminate ground water, the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission ruled Monday when it declared its reasons for denying a permit to Central Monofill Services.

“It is not possible to set conditions to adequately protect the groundwater and aquifer from anticipated negative effects of the monofill,” said the resolution the commission approved, which spent a significant amount of time outlining the groundwater concerns.

The monofill project has been a controversial one for months now in a neighborhood off of the Glenn Highway south of Palmer. The company that hopes to develop it CMS, says that the fill will contain building materials from its demolition business that cannot be recycled. Worries of contamination of groundwater, they have said, are unfounded. The material will be tightly controlled to ensure dangerous items are kept out.

But neighbors point out that the area has already had trouble with groundwater. The gravel pit CMS bought, when it was operating, punctured an aquifer, changing water levels in nearby lakes. And, they say, the trash has already spread from the site onto neighboring properties on windy days.

The portion of Monday’s meeting dealing with the permit was brief. The commission had on June 3 already denied the permit. It was only there to state clearly its reasons.

Early in the meeting, Bill Ingaldson, an attorney representing CMS urged the commission to reconsider the previous decision and give the company a chance to clear up the borough’s concerns. He said that would be the more efficient way to proceed, since it would save CMS having to file another application.

Two neighbors of the project also spoke.

“I wouldn’t be here tonight unless I was very passionate about the decisions being made here tonight,” said Geri McCann.

She urged the commission to stick with its decision to deny the permit, saying that the project is out of synch with the borough’s own development plans.

In the end, all the commission did was mildly tweak the reasons that the borough planning department staff had suggested.

Among those were upholding various development plans as well as the aforementioned ground water and blowing trash concerns and other concerns about it diminishing property values and being unsightly when viewed from major roadways. The reasons stretched to six pages.

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