Neighbors have had their fill

PALMER — An environmental company ran afoul of Mat-Su Borough regulators last week who ordered a work stoppage and cleanup of a former gravel pit.

“The borough has issued an enforcement order and Central Monofil Services has been cleaning up the site,” said Mat-Su Borough Development Services Manager Alex Strawn.

But the company, Central Monofill Services, says that concerns over the site are overblown and unfounded.

“There’s no hazardous waste, no PCBs,” said Shane Durand with CMS. “It’s all properly managed materials.”

The state too says it is satisfied that CMS can do it safely.

“We were satisfied, based on regulations, that this facility would provide adequate protection,” said Nate Emery, a regulator with the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation. “We were going to issue a permit, but one of the stipulations would be to have the Mat-Su Borough conditional use permit.”

That permit is up for discussion June 3 with the borough planning commission, Strawn said. The commission could choose to put restrictions on the permit that, limiting what types of things could be dumped etc.

Durand said the plan is to fill in the gravel pit with construction debris and, eventually, end up with a re-vegetated field on which people can start a farm or play soccer.

But neighbors are concerned. One of them, Richard Harbuck, said he’s worried about living next to a landfill.

“Let’s face it, if they do this thing, the value of my house goes from what it is now to nothing,” he said.

The gravel pit didn’t even exist when Harbuck purchased his property.

“Actually, when I moved in that whole area was woods,” he said.

Photos he took of the property next door show that the company had already started dumping material there before with the DEC or borough had issued the necessary permits.

That’s when the borough stepped in, issuing the stop work order May 2 with a five-day deadline to remove materials placed on the site. Thursday, borough Code Compliance Officer Mark Whisenhunt was on scene digging holes to see if the company had complied with the order.

Whisenhunt declined Thursday to say what he’d found, saying that he needs to first go over the information with his superiors.

But Durand said there wasn’t any dumping going on, that the company was chopping clean wood up for mulch on the site — the borough actually let them keep the wood there — and experimenting with mixing construction debris with dirt as a possible disposal method.

“We were doing things that we feel are not part of the disposal dump landfill, but people see us out there doing things and automatically jump to the conclusion that we’re dumping stuff,” Durand said.

He said the company has a right to work on the land.

“It still is our property and it still has a gravel permit,” he said. “Just because we’re in there working doesn’t mean we’re in violation of not having a permit.”

Harbuck said he suspects CMS trash and contaminants also are present in a nearby pond. Durand denies that allegation.

“Nothing goes into the water,” Durand said.

Another concern is with the material that will be going into the pit. Durand said the permit applied for with the borough clearly states that asbestos is among the materials he proposes to dump.

“Asbestos is not a toxic waste,” he said. “It only becomes hazardous to health and human safety if it is not handled properly.”

Any asbestos going into the monofill will be handled properly, he said. Asbestos is also not soluble, it won’t get into water supplies, nor will it be handled in such a way as to allow it to go airborne.

So what about other materials? Harbuck pointed out that an unscrupulous contractor might try to slip something past.

Durand agreed that there are plenty of hazardous materials used in building construction.

“Whether it’s a PCB light ballast, a mercury thermostat, asbestos floor tiles,” he said, there’s plenty to watch out for.

But his company requires that contractors have their buildings independently surveyed and that they then account for how they dispose of anything the surveyor comes up with.

And then it’s all screened by CMS. People trying to pass through things they shouldn’t, he said, is actually one of his company’s hidden profit centers as the contracts contain huge fees for contractors who try to pull that sort of thing.

It’s something he takes seriously, Durand said, because there are liability issues if his employees are exposed to those materials.

What about the wind? Harbuck pointed out that the wind gets pretty intense in Palmer and that material in the fill will likely blow around.

Durand seemed confident he could deal with it. First line of defense would be barriers built around the fill. Then there would be dirt over top of the fill and water trucks to keep the dust down.

He said he thinks the company has a lot to offer the Valley. He said they can help bring down dumping costs for building materials and could start a glass recycling program out here like they did in Anchorage. CMS also plans to sell used materials like doors and windows.

“We sell them on Craigslist and we’ve found that most all of that stuff is going out to the Valley,” he said.

One thing Harbuck and Durand do agree on is that the future of relationships between the company and its neighbors looks pretty bleak. Durand said that surveyors looking for property lines had run-ins with one neighbor in particular.

“He came out with a shotgun and said we were on his property,” Durand said. “We found that his trespassing signs are apparently on our property.”

He’s planning a pair of informational meetings Tuesday at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. at the Palmer Train Depot.

As for Harbuck, he said that he just doesn’t trust CMS after, in his view, the company already started operations without a permit.

“They have poisoned this relationship,” he said.

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