‘Valley Trash’ is a joke, not a business model

The proposal by an Anchorage company, Central Monofill Services, to dump hundreds of thousands of tons of shredded construction debris and asbestos in an unlined, privately operated dump next to the Kepler-Bradley Lakes area near Palmer raises serious concerns. The proposed dump — which is up for consideration by the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission on Dec. 15 — threatens to pollute the surrounding lakes and the aquifer that feeds area wells. It poses a threat to air quality from asbestos and from hydrogen sulfide gas created by rotting drywall, a problem well documented at similar facilities in other states. It also threatens to create a financial liability for the borough as taxpayers will be on the hook for funding any clean up. According to applications filed with the borough and state, Central Monofill has offered to put up a total of $5.5 million in insurance and bonding — literally a drop in the bucket when it comes to cleaning up a polluted water supply.

As proposed, Central Monofill proposes to dump up to 25,000 tons a year of construction debris and up to 10,000 tons a year of asbestos. The site would cover up to 35 acres over a 25-year period with construction debris and asbestos piled up in cells up to 75 feet high that would use baled tires for the cell walls. The company has proposed do this on a site that has a documented history of problems with water. In addition, they propose to dump shredded construction debris — a practice not allowed in other states including Ohio because it makes it difficult to near impossible for regulators to identify what the original material was before it was shredded.

The materials dumped at the site would include insulation, treated lumber, carpet, metals, plastic, sheetrock, and others. While legal to dump under state and federal laws, these supposedly “inert” materials have been found in other states to leach toxins such as arsenic, benzene, manganese, and lead in levels above health and water standards. For example, a 2009 Ohio EPA study found that 30 of 30 Construction & Demolition Debris (C&DD) landfills tested had at least three parameters that exceeded health or water quality standards. Twenty-nine of the 30 landfills had eight or more parameters that exceeded health or water quality standards. The conclusion was that “Leachate from Ohio C&DD landfills poses a threat to public health and the environment if released to ground water or surface water.”

The majority of the material, by-and-large, would come from Anchorage. The same owners of Central Monofill own two separate businesses — Central Environmental Inc., which demolishes buildings, and Central Recycling Services, which operates a recycling facility at an industrial site on Ship Creek in Anchorage where they sort materials from the demolished buildings and recycle and sell what they can. The leftover material is what they propose to grind up and dump at the Palmer-area site.

The reason Central Monofill wants to dump this material at the Palmer site and a site in Chugiak is because they don’t want to pay to dump this trash at the Anchorage landfill. (In fact, they have a lawsuit pending against the city of Anchorage over the landfill rates). And what do you do when you have a bunch of trash you want to dump cheap? Apparently if you’re from Anchorage, you come to the Valley!

A close reading of the company’s applications to the state and borough show scant protection for the environment, and little accountability from the company if pollution does occur. For example, the proposal does not include a liner to prevent toxic leachate from getting into the water supply. It does not include independent oversight of what is dumped at the facility beyond the company’s own employees. Additionally, despite documentation about the uncertain hydrology of this site, their proposal to the state does not include a groundwater monitoring plan. Hydrologists hired by the company reported the site is so arid and receives so little precipitation that they don’t need these protections because so little water would get into the dumped material. However, an independent hydrologist hired by the Mat-Su Borough to review the proposal, stated a significant amount of water — up to 1.4 million gallons a year — could filter through the site. Of note, he pointed out the hydrologists hired by CMS used an annual precipitation and evaporation rate, ignoring the fact that precipitation at the site is not evenly spread throughout the year. Contrary to being dry, he noted the US Geological Survey has classified the site as “transitional between maritime and continental climates.”

Central Monofill’s record so far shows a lack of operational controls and willingness to thumb their nose at local regulators. In 2013, Central Monofill illegally dumped trash on the proposed dump site in violation of borough code and refused to clean it up for months even after being cited for illegal dumping. They forced the Borough to take them to court and even after the court upheld the citations, they refused to clean up. It took the threat of an enforcement order from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation to get the material finally removed from the site.

As mentioned, the company’s total financial liability if something should go wrong is $5.5 million. That’s not much to pay for a company that stands to make millions by not paying to dump at the Anchorage landfill. To add insult to injury, in their application a consultant hired by the company states that should the water get polluted, they could simply hook up the 200-plus surrounding homes to the city of Palmer’s water supply. There is no figure attached to how much that would cost and who would pay for it.

According to the company’s application, the facility will bring three full-time jobs to the borough, and offer less in property taxes than most pay on their single family homes.

Businesses should be evaluated on their merits, not their potential value to the borough, but it is worth looking at in this case compared to the potential risk to residents.

There are many more serious questions about the suitability of this site, particularly about the hydrology, which includes a history of complaints about water problems dating back to 2005 to both the state Department of Natural Resources and borough. There is also the troubling question of what makes this property, in a prime location for views and commuters, not suitable for residential development as stated by Central Monofill in their original application.

Central Monofill is searching for a way to make its business economical. That’s understandable. But the company cannot ask the borough to subsidize its business by forcing residents to shoulder the risks and possible costs of their operation.

Residents have reached out to CMS officials, to let them know about the particular history on this site, the concerns about water quality and to offer assistance for either finding a different site or potentially a way to help with costs of dumping it at the municipal landfill. CMS should take residents up on this offer. If not, the borough should not approve this site without conditions that would protect the public health, safety, and welfare. Those at the least should include a liner, a leachate collection system, independent water monitoring and independent random testing of materials brought to the site.

Stephanie Nowers is a Palmer-area resident and member of PalmerToxicDumping.org, a community based group opposed to the dump.