Munoz is right: We need a regional solid-waste treatment plan

If you’ve been to a Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting in the last few years, chances are good you heard testimony from Helen Munoz.

And chances are just as good that what you heard her talk about is the need for the Mat-Su Borough to do something about its septage.

The problem, as Munoz and others have articulated, is that the Valley can’t handle its own waste. There are treatment plants here. The cities of Palmer and Wasilla each have one, as does the Goose Creek Correctional Center. But anyone who lives outside of those areas has their septage pumped from their tanks and hauled to Anchorage.

Anchorage pumps all that minimally treated septage into Cook Inlet under a federal permit that just about everyone who knows anything about it says is tenuous at best.

The Mat-Su Borough has been working on a plan for at least five years and seems close to picking a site for a regional treatment plant.

If we needed a further reminder why safely managing our solid waste as a region is important for all of us, today’s Frontiersman features a story that underscores the importance.

Cottonwood Creek is impaired — and has been for some time — due to the presence of fecal bacteria, which DNA testing has shown is at least partially human-generated. You know Cottonwood Creek, it’s that popular salmon stream that winds through the city of Wasilla and several of its subdivisions.

The culprit might be older, failing septic systems in nearby homes — the creek runs by some pretty old subdivisions — or it could be just that people aren’t emptying their systems often enough.

The woman we talked to who is working on outreach efforts to form septic pumping neighborhood co-ops said she’s heard stories from pumpers about homeowners who didn’t know what that ugly pipe sticking out of their yard was and cut it off, then tried to fill the hole they made with gravel.

It’s a funny story, but for us it illustrates the reason this problem has gone so long without a solution. People just don’t stop to think about where their effluent goes after they flush their toilet. It’s a problem that is way too easy to ignore.

As more and more city folk accustomed to city water and wastewater services move out here these problems are only going to get worse.

We hope the pollution in Cottonwood Creek will be a catalyst for the borough to institute a plan to safely treat our solid waste locally and prevent further pollution of local waterways. And we hope it’s a wake up call for all of us to pay attention to our shared responsibility to protect Alaska’s water — and land — resources.