Wetland crossings for rail spur approved

PALMER — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit to cross wetlands in building a rail line from Port MacKenzie to the Alaska Railroad’s main line near Houston.

Mat-Su Borough Manager John Moosey said word of the permit came down Monday afternoon.

“Earlier this summer we had Bristol Construction working on segment one, which is the south part. I believe it’s almost five miles of that project they’re working on. There’s some wetlands in that,” Moosey said. “We just recently gave them notice that they can start up again.”

Moosey said that next week the borough will solicit bids for companies to construct segment six, which is the connection between the extension and the railroad’s mainline.

The permit from the Corps of Engineers allows the railroad and the borough to permanently fill in 95.8 acres of wetlands for the 35.8-mile extension.

A press release from the Army Corps says that in compensation for filling in the land, the railroad will “purchase credits in two mitigation banks in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the Su-Knik Mitigation Bank and the Pioneer Reserve Mitigation Bank.”

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a mitigation bank is essentially a wetland, stream or other “aquatic resource area” that has been restored, created or enhanced in order to make up for destruction of wetlands by projects like the rail extension.

The federal government grants each mitigation bank a certain number of credits that can be sold to organizations like the Railroad that need to fill in wetlands.

The borough has said from the beginning that development of Port MacKenzie hinges in large part on the extension of rail service to the port. The project is pitched as a means to open up mineral resources — metals, limestone, coal — to development in the state’s Interior.

Port MacKenzie is potentially more economical for the shipping of bulk commodities as it shortens the distances those resources from the Interior will have to travel to reach tidewater, backers say.

The wetlands issue was among the main concerns raised when a coalition of environmental groups filed an appeal in federal court early this year to try and get federal approval of the project rescinded.

“The salmon population of the Mat-Su Valley are already under extreme pressure,” Bob Shavelson with Cook Inletkeeper said in a previous interview.

Moosey has in response to that noted the borough’s track record regarding preservation of fish habitat. The borough runs multiple projects each year making sure fish can safely pass under roads in the borough, he said.

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