Monofill company re-applies for borough permit

PALMER — A company hoping to dispose of construction debris in a decommissioned gravel pit off the Glenn Highway has resubmitted its application for a Mat-Su Borough permit.

Central Monofill Services was at the center of a series of contentious hearings last year that culminated in a June 2013 ruling from the borough’s planning commission denying the company’s permit application. CMS has also been cited by the borough for dumping without a permit. The company disputes those citations and has appealed them in court, saying it didn’t dump anything. CMS claims it manufactured mulch, brought out recycled building materials to put together an on-site warehouse and experimented with mixing crushed up construction debris with dirt as a means of disposing of it.

The permit denial said the company’s plans didn’t adequately protect the surrounding neighborhoods from blowing trash — neighbors said trash had already blown onto their properties — nor did it adequately protect groundwater.

Shane Durand with Central Monofill Services said the new application attempts to address those concerns.

For groundwater concerns, he has hired a new hydrologist and commissioned a new report. He said a hydrologist who previously looked at CMS’ plans and deemed them incapable of protecting groundwater had viewed the proposal as one to create one massive pile of debris covered in a layer of dirt.

“Everyone was all keyed up that it was this big pile of trash,” he said. “The engineer in me doesn’t always make it as basic as it needs to be to convey the message.”

What the plan actually calls for is a series of small piles stacked next to and on top of one another, each one covered in a layer of dirt. Durand said he took that outside hydrologist’s report to heart, but the new consultant has him confident the project will not endanger the water table.

The area has had problems with groundwater in the past. A gravel pit in the area punctured an aquifer, changing water levels in a nearby lake.

On a tour of the pit, he pointed to test wells the company installed to monitor the ground water. He said some concerns about the water — that CMS would dump in manmade ponds on the property — were unfounded from the start. There would be no way he could get a permit to dump in the ponds and he would never want to.

The borough’s planning commission, in denying a permit to the monofill, also mentioned those ponds, saying they are attractive to migratory birds and that material the company wants to dispose of could harm those birds if ingested.

Another concern the planning commission dealt with is blowing debris. Durand says in the new application he has outlined a plan to use catch fences around the fill spots. In addition, he said, the plan describes the use of anemometers.

“At certain wind speeds we won’t dump any materials,” he said.

Yet another concern neighbors had was that the monofill would contain hazardous materials. Durand said his company employs people to find those materials. There is no incentive to hide them, Durand said, because a contractor that brings them in has to pay to clean them up and is required to also pay CMS a fee.

But, he said, the new plan also includes a dump spot where contractors will put their loads down. That spot will move across the site as the pit is filled, but it will always have a liner separating the material and the ground.

He said he has included in the application letters from neighbors at the company’s current facility along Anchorage’s Ship Creek and another facility in Salcha.

“We don’t have any issues with this stuff blowing around,” he said about those operations. “The neighbors here aren’t going to notice it’s going on.”

He said a lot of people have asked why the company chose this pit. Durand said it’s hard to find a location that works this well. He said the former gravel pit needs to be back filled to be reclaimed as parkland or a subdivision. Now, aside from a handful of homes on the other side of a treed buffer zone, the majority of his neighbors are other gravel pits.

“Try to find a site that’s at least 20 acres, doesn’t have a stream running through it, doesn’t have residences all around it,” Durand said.

Also, a monofill site that both take construction debris from Anchorage and the Valley doesn’t yet exist. A site farther out would make the prospect not cost-effective. In addition to the jobs CMS is offering, the company diverts tons of waste from the local landfill. He said his operation in Anchorage diverted 50,000 tons of waste from landfills there last year. For comparison, Durand said Valley Center for Recycling Solutions informed him it diverted 1,500 tons in that same period.

“It’s a huge number that we’re trying to do,” he said.

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