MEA sites draw fire

May 29, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Who lives near the sites Matanuska Electric Association has picked for its proposed electric generators?

In a recent flyer from MEA that accompanied advisory vote ballots, the co-op describes five possible sites for the construction of its proposed coal-fired and gas-fired electric generators. The sites, shown in satellite images and topographical maps in the flyer, are described in terms of their usefulness to MEA's generation project.

There are, however, farmers, families, industry and wildlife that use these sites for recreation, profit and sustenance. Many Valley residents living on the borders of the sites say not wanting a coal plant in their neighborhood is not a &#8220Not In My Back Yard” issue.

But, if Matanuska Electric Association follows through with its plan to build 200 megawatts of new generation capacity in the heart of the Mat-Su Valley, one of five proposed neighborhoods will have to come to terms with their new industrial neighbors.

MEA has mailed ballots asking its member-owners to advise the co-op on where in the Valley it should build its generators. Member-owners are asked to rank the five sites MEA and its consultant, CH2M Hill, have identified as possibilities. The completed ballots are due by June 3.

Meanwhile, the anti-coal groups Utility Watch and MEA Ratepayers Alliance have an ongoing campaign to write in on MEA's site ballot a different option about where to build the coal plant - &#8220nowhere.” Information about the initiative can be found at www.utlitywatch.org or www.mearatepayers.com.

As has been customary, MEA spokesman Tuckerman Babcock refused to comment about anything in this story.

Glenn Highway gravel pits north and south

MEA's five proposed sites are spread out along the Glenn and Parks Highway in three clusters.

The easternmost sites encompass the gravel pits at Mile 37 and Mile 38 of the Glenn Highway. They appear on aerial photos to be one continuous gravel mine bisected by the Glenn.

The pits snuggle up next to the Bradley-Kepler Lakes system, the Matanuska River and the Palmer Hay Flats Game Refuge. Mining activity in the gravel pits has caused exaggerated fluctuations in the area's water table.

The Glenn gravel pits are proximate to rail lines, a natural gas pipeline, MEA's existing electric grid and the road system - all considered advantages to the co-op's plans.

John Leiner tends to his farm in a small eclectic subdivision south of the Glenn Highway called Grand View. The Glenn Highway gravel pits south site is a two-minute walk from his back door.

Leiner's back yard has been on his mind for years now. For the first 20 years or so after he bought his land, in 1979, Leiner farmed the black soil on the hills behind his house.

But since Wilder Construction started its gravel mine literally a stone's throw away from his cauliflower and broccoli field, Leiner has had to worry about a rising water table, a proposed mega-prison and now two large power plants.

Leiner's farm, Alaska Farm Produce, is also known as Johnny &#8220Moose” Farm, due to the many run-ins he said he has had with the moose that travel through his farm.

Along with cauliflower and broccoli, Leiner grows squash, turnips, peas, peppers, beets and tomatoes.

Leiner starts his plants in greenhouses equipped with large fans that cycle fresh air to his tomato and pepper plants. He said he is worried by the proximity of his greenhouses as hundreds of rail cars full of coal unload.

Leiner also said the mercury, lead, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide the coal plant will emit could hurt his land for farming.

Paula and Frank Wall moved into Leiner's neighborhood in 1992 when Frank Wall retired from the Coast Guard. They had no jobs and four kids and thought the move would just be temporary, Paula Wall said.

But the young family fell in love with the beauty of the place, Wall said.

&#8220That is why they call it Grand View,” she said.

Wall said she and her husband have spent a lot of time and effort clearing and landscaping their little piece of the Valley. She said she is worried that MEA's coal plant will ruin what they have worked so hard for, that the coal plant and its tall smoke stacks will ruin her view of Pioneer Peak, Matanuska Peak and Knik Glacier.

&#8220We don't want it,” Wall said. &#8220I'm thinking about my lungs and everyone's lungs.”

The Walls were active members in the No Palmer Prison campaign to keep the Mat-Su medium-security prison out of the same site MEA is eyeing.

&#8220We are tired of fighting. If it is not one thing, it is another,” Wall said.

Wall said she would rather MEA put wind turbines at the location.

&#8220I can't keep shingles on my house because of all the wind,” Wall said.

Wall said that she didn't think MEA did a good job informing its member-owners of its plans. She and her neighbors first heard about the co-op's proposed generators in late February.

Millers Reach

Millers Reach is a remote wetland, filled with short spruce and tall birch.

Located less than four miles north of Big Lake and near the town of Houston, the Millers Reach site is bordered by the Susitna River and the Prator Lake system. Though proximate to populated areas, the site is far from existing natural gas pipelines, requiring a costly gasline spur if the site is chosen for the power plants.

Millers Reach is 800 acres - nearly a square mile - of spruce, birch and wetland. Houston resident Hank Brunswick calls the popular hunting and snowmachine area behind his house a swamp.

Brunswick lives on Pick-A-Dilly Lane, an unpaved stretch of access road that leads to a couple dozen small family homes. Many of the homes were built by the homeowners.

Brunswick moved to Millers Reach after the fire in 1996. He moved there to get away from the noise and chaos of city life.

After building a modest home on his few acres, Brunswick bought a business installing rain gutters. He keeps and rides two horses in a corral of his making.

Brunswick said the neighbors he has spoken to do not want a coal plant in their neighborhood.

&#8220Even though we get busy sometimes, we have to pay attention to what is going on,” Brunswick said.

Brunswick said the Millers Reach site might require a lot of fill to dry out the wet acres.

&#8220There is a lot of swamp,” Brunswick said &#8220I don't know why they'd want to build back there.”

Jessica Radlinski and her husband, Chris Radlinski, live across Pick-a-Dilly Road from Brunswick on the corner of Millers Reach Road.

When she was interviewed in mid-May Radlinski said she had not heard she might have an 800-acre power-generation complex as her neighbor. Their property is flush with the site's eastern border.

Radlinski said she would be unhappy if the project goes through.

&#8220We like our peace and quiet,” Radlinski said. &#8220That is why we came out here.”

MEA officials have said the cooperative is looking at such large properties to offer a buffer for their neighbors. MEA originally said it would seek out parcels of 150 to 600 acres. The Millers Reach parcel is a third larger than the initial upper limit.

Radlinski said the buffer would not be enough.

&#8220I'll smell it from here. I'll see the traffic. It will affect the wildlife that comes through here, the birds,” Radlinski said.

Winter moose pass through her land often, Radlinski said, and the plant could also affect the hunting out at Millers Reach.

She and her husband raise goats, rabbits and chickens.

&#8220I'm a designer and work in Wasilla. My husband is a plumber and works in Eagle River. We live out here by choice, not because we have to. We chose to live out as far away as possible because of the nature,” Radlinski said. &#8220We don't want to be in the cities. I don't want the machinery and noise and the smells coming right next door.”

Pittman gravel pits

and Blodgett Lake area

At least three of the five proposed sites already house large industrial activities. The Pittman gravel pits and Glenn Highway North and South gravel pits are active today with machinery used to extract gravel and churn out asphalt. Depending on the site, these pits are run by either Quality Asphalt Paving, Wilder Construction or Central Paving Products, according to Meadow Lakes resident and former MEA board member Mike Janecek.

Janecek lives near the 645-acre Pittman gravel pits site.

&#8220When QAP is making asphalt it sounds like a jet engine,” Janecek said.

Janecek said QAP has expressed long-term plans for the Pittman site.

&#8220They are going to dig on that thing for 20 years,” Janecek said. &#8220The gravel pit is worth millions in its gravel to QAP.”

Janecek is a member of the anti-coal group MEA Ratepayers Alliance. For him and his group, the issue is not where the coal plant should be built, but whether it should be built at all. Janecek said he doesn't want the coal plant in his or anyone's back yard.

Meadow Lakes resident Taylene Belka is an active member in the Meadow Lakes Community Council.

She and her husband, Steve Belka, have lived in the Valley on and off since the early 1980s.

The Belkas' home is located east of the 645-acre Pittman site.

&#8220As the crow flies, we are probably a mile and a half or two miles from the Pittman site,” Taylene Belka said.

Belka said she has lung disease and that if the coal plant is built she and her husband are going to shut down their two businesses and move.

&#8220I can't take the chance of breathing the plant's emissions,” Belka said. &#8220I never really bargained that I would be living in a coal town, in Alaska.”

The entrepreneurial Belkas own Meadow Lakes Publishing Company and Love of Alaska Remodeling.

Belka said she believes MEA's generators would violate the hard-won Meadow Lakes Comprehensive Plan and the community's draft Special Use District.

MEA's designated Pittman site encompasses 40 acres that Belka and Janecek said Meadow Lakes bought from the borough for a community center.

The borough sold the 40 acres to Meadow Lakes at a low cost, Belka said, on the condition that it would be used for a community center.

The community's comprehensive plan rules out the type of industry MEA is trying to bring in.

&#8220It is not industrial-based economy out here that we are trying to build,” Belka said.

Belka said MEA's plan came as a surprise to many of her neighbors.

&#8220People don't read the [monthly MEA publication] Powerlines like they should. It is junk mail to a lot of people,” she said. &#8220I disagree with [MEA] saying it informed people ahead of time.”

Belka said another concern is that Meadow Lakes is full of wetlands.

&#8220We are the headwaters of the Big Lake watershed. Everything that happens in Meadow Lakes flows downstream and ends up in Big Lake,” she said.

Belka said her being against MEA's coal plans is not a NIMBY issue. It's more about wind conditions in the lower Valley.

&#8220Valley winds swirl around at the end of the mountains at the river deltas and end up all over the Valley,” Belka said. &#8220It is inevitable that all of the emissions are going to be blown all over.”

Belka said that with climate change and pollution there are not any appropriate places in the world for a coal plant, let alone the lower Mat-Su.

&#8220We can think of better ways to generate power,” Belka said.

The Meadow Lakes Community Council is known for being active, she said. In researching their comprehensive plan, she and her neighbors have become savvy.

&#8220We are the community to watch,” Belka said. &#8220We have to be willing to sit in front of bulldozers.”

Belka will speak on the issue at the Parks and Recreation Summit at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Willow Community Center.

Contact Russell Stigall at

352-2267 or russell.stigall@ frontiersman.com