Firm tries to find origin of flooding

JUSTIN BLOMSNESS/Frontiersman reporter

Residents of an area south of Palmer are claiming that a dredge operated by Wilder Construction Co. in its gravel operation there reportedly penetrated the water table in August 2003, causing area lake levels to rise and homes to flood since then.

Company spokesman Trevor Edmondson said it's unclear if Wilder is responsible for the flooding around the Glenn Highway area, but Wilder has hired a hydrologist to investigate the claims so the company could determine "an appropriate course of action."

"We are in the process of evaluating," Edmondson said.

But homeowners said there was little doubt about where the water is coming from.

"I've had people from Wilder tell me that's what happened," said Sid Pierce, a longtime former resident of the affected area, which is just outside Palmer. "Besides, there is no other logical source - it isn't a spring."

However it may be resolved, the dispute pits farmers against a large Anchorage-based company that could also claim "grandfather rights" in the Valley. It also illustrates the desperate need for new laws to govern the land rights of an expanding population.

State law regulates gravel mines, to protect water quality and runoff in salmon streams. In some instances, permits are required for burning and use of hazardous materials. But there is no prohibition on the "creation of man-made lakes or dredging into the water table," according to a study recently conducted by the Mat-Su Borough. On private property, gravel mine operators in the Mat-Su could drill to China if they so desired.

The borough's study is part of a new ordinance under design to address these very issues. Other boroughs in Alaska have laws on the books to impose penalties on noncompliant gravel companies. In Kenai, for example, Wilder could face a $100-a-day fine for each day the company is noncompliant, said Kenai Borough Planner Kevin Williamson.

But gravel-mining outfits in the Valley are unregulated, said Mat-Su Borough Manager John Duffy.

The borough's planning and land-use department, which is designing the new gravel-mining ordinance, hasn't settled on a penalty for companies that break the law in the Valley.

Murph O'Brien, director of that department, said he and his staff are still in the information-gathering phase, but the proposal could be in front of the Assembly as soon as March. From there, it could be adopted as an ordinance.

The penalty could be the standard one set by borough code, which is a fine not to exceed $500, said Eileen Probasco, a borough planner.

Homeowners said this is "small potatoes" to companies like Wilder, which makes millions processing Palmer's gravel.

"That's not much of a deterrent," Pierce said. "That's not much of an incentive to do things right."

To rub salt in Pierce's wounds, outfits like Wilder - which have operated in the Valley for more than a decade - might not even have to comply with the ordinance if grandfather rights factor into the code, officials said.

Meanwhile, problems persist.

Pierce said the flooding factored into his decision to sell his house on Canoe Lake. Neighbors Kent and Kathy Johnson said rising lake levels submerged a rock wall they built on their Canoe Lake property, causing them "uncertainty about the future" of their home.

The water flowed across the Glenn Highway, underneath the Alaska Railroad property, to low-lying lands on the other side of the tracks, where it caused problems with routing the water-sewer line to the new Mat-Su Regional Medical Center facility, said Michael Travis of Travis/Peterson Environmental Consulting. Hattenburg Dilley and Linell, the company in charge of putting in the water-sewer line, did not return phone calls on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Perhaps the single person most affected by the flooding is a farmer who lives in that low-lying area opposite the highway from Wilder's dredging operation.

John Liner says the swamps he uses for irrigation are destroyed and that water is percolating through the walls of his basement. Wilder built part of an expensive septic system to replace the one he lost - which some people see as an admission of culpability on Wilder's part - but he said the company hasn't completed the project because he refused to sign some of its paperwork.

Because of the damage, Liner said he also lost a Palmer Soil and Water Conservation District grant to help develop his property.

District member Catherine Inman said her organization surveyed the damage caused by the water and advised Liner to seek legal advice.

"It was far beyond our scope," Inman said. "The manmade ditch is destroying his farm."

Pierce said noise and dust are also a problem for neighbors living next to Wilder's pit, but the company always "bent over backwards" to try and be a good neighbor.

"They usually tried hard to make things better," Pierce said, until the water situation.

Prior to Wilder's dredging gravel out of its manmadelakearound 2001, neighboring lakes were dropping below normal levels because of a drought. Homeowners, particularly those on Canoe Lake, said they suddenly became aware of exponential rises in the lake levels, roughly about the same time Wilder began dredging in a new area of the lagoon.

"The pattern is, the lakes would drop about a foot a year, then rise six or eight inches. They'd been falling two to three feet a year," said Pierce, who recalls lending lumber to neighbors so they could build extensions on their docks.

"All of a sudden in August 2003, bang! Water starts coming up, four or five inches every day. I couldn't believe it," Pierce said.

What happened below the earth's surface might have been an honest mistake on Wilder's part. Many people agree the dredge punched a hole in the water table or removed a subterranean barrier that allowed overflow from an adjacent aquifer. It's not uncommon.

Wilder officials admitted the company isn't sure where all the aquifers are located in the area. It wouldn't have been unlawful.

Contact Justin Blomsness at justin.blomsness@frontiersman.com