Wastewater Woes

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Wastewater and Septage Advisory Committee heard two proposals from companies vying to build a new sewage treatment facility in the borough.

A new facility is a near immediate need, as septic pumpers drive into Anchorage to pump their septic currently, and with the closure of one facility will have to drive across town to dump sewage.

JL Properties presented their proposal to the WSAC first. JL properties owns more than $2 billion in buildings and apartments in Alaska, and a quarter of class A office space in Anchorage is owned by JL with properties in Anchorage, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and in Fairbanks.

“We are an environmentally responsible company,” David Germer said.

Alaska Waste, a division of JL, was the first to bring a biodiesel facility to Alaska along with being the first to develop an environmentally sensitive office building. Alaska Waste pumps all of the sewage on the Kenai Peninsula, and would like the opportunity to do so in the Valley. Of the two proposed sites for JL, the preferred location would be to put the sewage facility next to where the landfill is currently. Sean Cooed said that he understands the difficulties local haulers face every day. Cooed said he was searching for a cost effective way to treat sewage in the Mat-Su. Much of Mat-Su Septage’s proposal was based on testing already being done at a facility they built in Nikiski which is a third of the size of the proposed location in the Mat-Su. The Nikiski facility will be done in three months, and Mat-Su Septage hopes to have results by then on if a chemical will appear in the dry sewage byproduct, which as occurred in Fairbanks. Officials are still uncertain if this is a problem with the location or the process of treating sewage. The problem lies with a polymer designed to coagulate solid material into the septage. A slowly rotating trommel separates solids during the process and can accumulate septage more effectively. The 500,000 gallon lagoon system would filter the sewage to standards so that haulers do not have to transport sewage to and from Anchorage. Advisory Committee member Tom Stoelting was particularly skeptical. Advisory Committee member Dan tucker asked about the energy that would be produced from treating sewage. Germer replied that he was uncertain if the chemical found in the compost would still be affected, and was waiting on results from Nikiski, but clarified that waste energy was not a part of the proposal, which the Committee had specifically asked for.

Evergreen Consortium is a multi-national company that has dealt with sewage treatment plants in major metropolitan areas, and said that they were approaching a carbon neutral process. Dr. Abi Assadi said that the process in the plant Evergreen was presenting was similar to the anaerobic digestion process in the human body. Evergreen is hoping for an agreement of over two decades and just over a year of construction, and plans to take the full financial burden of the project. Many familiar faces at Mat-Su Borough Assembly meetings came out to support the presenters. With the looming deadline of only one facility being available for Valley haulers, the Borough knew the pressure was on to get their own sewage treatment facility. Tom Munoz of Tom’s Septic preferred the Evergreen presentation, and said that over 18 million gallons of sewage traveled from the Mat-Su to Anchorage to be dumped last year. The Wastewater Advisory Committee met for the first time since monthly meetings were dictated by the Borough Assembly to move forward on a sewage treatment facility in the Mat-Su Valley. Committee Chair Mike Campfield said he expects the committee to come to a decision at their May meeting.