Planning commission votes against landfill

PALMER — A 3-3 Monday vote by the planning commission means a controversial landfill near here will not go ahead.

The vote denies and effectively stymies temporarily Central Monofill Services, Inc’s quest for a conditional use permit to store and dispose of construction and demolition waste at a site west of the Glenn Highway and south of the fairgrounds. This represents a victory for an organized opposition to the monofill, though an attorney representing the company said they intended to appeal to the Board of Adjustment.

Debate on the landfill consumed the planning commission meeting, and drew it out all the way to the mandatory midnight adjournment. At least one other item on the commission’s agenda, the revision of a tall towers ordinance, did not receive a public hearing.

A standing-room-only crowd eventually had dwindled to a tired-looking handful of stalwarts by about 11:30 p.m. The vast majority of about 50 people who signed up to speak at the public hearing opposed the landfill.

Residents of surrounding subdivisions laid out their objections before the board: they objected to company-funded surveys showing the landfill did not pose a risk; they felt the company wasn’t worthy of trust because it had been twice cited by the borough and appealed the matter to the Alaska Supreme Court; and they felt ramifications of an approval could potentially affect their children or grandchildren.

Farmer Ben VanderWeele, brought potatoes, lettuce and carrots to make his point, saying the monofill could potentially affect crops in the area.

“Our crops must have good, clean water,” he said. “I hereby urge the planning commission not to allow Central Monofill Service to operate in the state’s prime agricultural region south of Palmer.”

Stephanie Figon brought a match, which she lit and then extinguished.

“This is not a regular dump,” she said. “This is a recipe for an environmental and financial disaster of epic proportion, and it takes about the energy of one match to ignite it.”

In 2011, a fire ignited the Alaska Demolition landfill near the state fairgrounds, and was contained without much damage, Figon said. In the event that a fire started at the CMS site, local residents would bear the cost, she said.

While the issues were serious, some joviality crept in. Planning clerk Mary Brodigan took both the vegetables and the burnt match in as exhibits.

CMS Employees, like Grant Goulet, also spoke in support of the landfill. Goulet is a five-year employee of the company, and works on the tip floor, where useful materials are taken out and recycled and asbestos is removed.

“I keep hearing individuals say that we don’t sort through any material, and it would be impossible to sort through everything that was there,” he said. “When I hear these things, I’m offended because they’re in turn saying that I’m not doing my job and that I do not take pride in what I do, which is completely false.”

Studies of the site have generated about 4,200 pages of documentation, and commissioners struggled to make sense of the overwhelming amount of information. Even a technically proficient commissioner could get lost, said commissioner Tomas Adams.

“There’s a tremendous amount of information in here,” he said. “I too am an engineer, and I understand some science, but I’m not sure that all of you do.”

Commissioner Brian Endle said they felt the information may not prove points necessary to grant the permit.

“For this permit, I don’t have to prove that he’s gonna make his work,” he said. “He’s got to prove to me that he’s going to follow the cases of the permit. I don’t think he’s done that. The people that he’s hired, they’ve basically attacked what the borough’s consultant was saying.”

Endle eventually joined commissioners Adams and Tom Healy in opposing the permit.

The Palmer city council has voted unanimously to oppose the landfill, and Healy is the Palmer Public Works Director.

Bruce Walden, who joined chair John Klapperich and commissioner Vern Rauchenstein in support of the permit, said the jobs were worth the risk.

“Alaska lives in an economic bubble outside of the country in large part,” he said. “We got our own oil, we got our own this and that. The bubble just burst.”

Declining oil prices had already started to affect his livelihood, Walden said.

Adams sought to amend the permit from 30 years to five, to match potential DEC permitting conditions. That amendment passed by a 4-2 vote, with Endle and Healy in opposition.

However, Adams changed to opposition for the main motion vote, ensuring the permit’s defeat.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com.