Port MacKenzie nets another major federal grant, this one for port security

Another federal grant has been awarded for Port MacKenzie, the Mat-Su Borough’s industrial port on Upper Cook Inlet.

This is for $900,000 to upgrade security at the port, according to Dave Griffin, the port director. The amount includes a required approximate $200,000 match paid by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, which owns the port.

The federal part of the grant will be about $700,000. Port MacKenzie has received a series of federal grants to upgrade its capabilities, a recent one before the latest being a grant to build a barge ramp so that barges can be moved out of the water for seasonal maintenance.

Griffin said permitting and engineering for the haul-out ramp are complete and the project is ready to go out for bids by contractors. Hopes are for the ramp to be under construction in 2026, he said.

Security upgrades at the port under the latest grant will include upgraded cyber-security; new energy-efficient lighting; electrification of the upper gate to the port area; an enhanced secure area for storage of high-value property including supplies for the military; an extension of water piping to the port’s deep-draft dock for fire suppression, and extension of power to the deep-draft dock.

Port officials are now working to finalized the grant agreements with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which awarded the grant.

In another development, TERRA Energy, the company planning a large coal-fire power plant in the western Mat-Su, is interested in leasing 1,200 acres of land in the port district for facilities that could use power from the proposed plant.

The matter is in the early discussion stage, Griffin said. The company has identified a specific tract it is interested in but a lease would likely involve a smaller amount of acreage after wetlands have been identified and geotechnical issues resolved. The first step would be for a permit to be issued to TERRA Energy so the company can access the site to investigate conditions.

There are other uncertainties connected with the power plant. The company hopes President Trump’s announcement of new funding for coal development will help the project but it’s likely multi-billion-dollar capital cost will be a big hurdle.

A 60-mile long-distance power transmission line will also be needed to connect the plant with Chugach Electric Association’s power facilities at Beluga, on Cook Inlet’s west side.

Also, a new coal mine is needed at the site, where an affiliate company has been exploring coal resources for several years. The coal is on state-owned lands.

An earlier plan to couple the power plant with a carbon dioxide capture and storage plan may be off the table, however, given the Trump administration’s opposition to any federal support related to climate change abatement.

The federal government had earlier initiated programs to help fund C02 capture and storage projects but those seem no longer to be active. The carbon capture part of the project would also have required investment in underground CO2 storage, perhaps with a special pipeline to carry the gas to the Beluga gas field for injection storage.

In a way, however, that simplifies the power project plan because it would only need the plant and the transmission line.