U.S. senate candidate talks Valley projects

MAT-SU — It seems like an arcane bit of bureaucratic wrangling but Mead Treadwell says he’s proud of an accomplishment he achieved years go working for the state of Alaska.

“The biggest permitting backlog in the state was you could not subdivide a piece of land unless DEC came along and said this plot and that plot can both hold a septic tank,” Treadwell said. “We privatized that.”

Engineers were empowered to inspect septic tanks and approve them. This was well before development started booming in the Valley and, Treadwell says, that small change — one that banks actually fought him on — and Treadwell said it’s the reason the Valley is what it is.

“Because we did that, the development that you see in the Valley today exists because it was literally the biggest bottleneck to the expansion of housing this community,” he said.

He’s proud enough of that work he keeps a souvenir — Stamp No. 1 from the private septic tank approval program — in his home office.

Treadwell said all of this during a meeting with the Frontiersman editorial board Thursday. He was in town on a campaign swing, including an event hosted by his longtime ally and former Valley state senator Lyda Green.

“Believe it or not, when Lyda first decided to run for office, I held her first fundraiser,” Treadwell said.

Treadwell is currently the state’s Lieutenant Governor but he’s running for a promotion — he wants to unseat Sen. Mark Begich. To do it he’ll first have to win the Republican primary and that’s no small order. One of his opponents — Joe Miller — already won a primary for U.S. Senate when he defeated Sen. Lisa Murkwoski before losing to her when she entered the general election as a write-in candidate. Another of his opponents — Dan Sullivan — is a former state attorney general, former commissioner of the state’s Department of Natural Resources, and former official in the U.S. State Department under George W. Bush.

“I’ve always said I would put my record working on Alaskan issues for 40 years up against anybody,” he said.

That record includes stints working on Wally Hickel’s 1978 run for governor, working on response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and working on the Arctic Research Commission in Washington, D.C.

On Valley-specific issues, he said that he is in favor of a Knik Arm bridge and thinks the developments on that issue this year — setting up a plan to pay for the bridge with public grants and loans — were positive.

“I am glad that we got a plan through the Legislature this year to move forward on funding for the bridge. I want to make sure that we do it nicely and I think that we will do it nicely,” he said.

He said he’s also in favor of a Susitna-Watana hydroelectric dam.

“It’s long-term, stable power for Alaskans for decades,” he said.

He said that he thinks the state shouldn’t let other potential renewable energy projects — tidal power in Cook Inlet or geothermal on Mt. Spur, for instance — detract from the dam. If those also come to fruition, he said, it will be even better for the state.

“But, neither one of them are ready for prime-time. This hydro project is,” Treadwell said.

He said he also favors development of the Mat-Su Borough’s Port MacKenzie.

“One of the other fascinating long-term things to think about with this port is, people have talked about for a long time connecting the Alaska Railroad to the Lower 48,” Treadwell said.

If that happens, “ultimately we may be the best place to land cargo from East Asia. That’s a long-term vision to have.”

But, he said, he doesn’t plan to go to D.C. seeking cash.

“I’m not going to be a senator to take a gunnysack to Washington and brings home buckets of money. I want to be a senator who takes a crowbar to Washington and brings power back home to Alaska,” he said.

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