WASILLA -- An Anchorage company is making another run at a building debris recycling and disposal site near Palmer, the same site rejected last year by the Mat-Su Borough planning commission.
Central Environmental Services operates Central Recycling Services and Central Monofill Services, the company behind the proposal to landfill shredded debris including asbestos at a 120-acre former gravel pit at Mile 38 Glenn Highway near the Matanuska Lakes State Recreation Area.
Central Recycling in 2012 made more than $3.5 million selling steel, crushed asphalt, concrete and glass from demolition and construction sites to Seattle and Alaska markets. It also generates roughly 8,000 tons of waste a year and wants a break from Anchorage municipal landfill fees.
Mat-Su planning commissioners in a 4-3 vote last year rejected Central's original monofill proposal, citing concerns about groundwater protection and blowing litter in the windy pit. Residents of nearby subdivisions -- a 2010 study showed nearly 50 wells in the area -- waged a noisy opposition campaign.
Also last year, the borough issued six citations charging Central with illegal dumping after the company deposited some shredded material at the site before any permit was approved. The borough Assembly changed the trash code to make sure Central's operations were covered. The illegally dumped material wasn't trucked out until September, after the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation got involved.
A public comment period for the company's second conditional-use permit application closes Friday. The planning commission will review the application in December.
The company's proposal is essentially the same as the first one, officials say.
Central co-owner Shane Durand said the problem last year wasn't the proposal itself but a lack of "clarity" on five or six points that troubled planning staff. This year's 1,031-page application packet has more hydrological studies and water quality information but basically, Durand said, the proposal is the same.
"Really, the design and the whole function of the facility, the operation, that hasn't changed," he said. "We've just provided more substantiating information and more clarity."
Monofills are less regulated than traditional waste landfills. Federal studies have linked some in Ohio to suspected carcinogens and those in multiple states to hydrogen sulfide gases.They're generally considered by regulators to be one kind of waste -- that's why they're called monofills -- with a low potential to pollute air or water.
But critics of Central's proposed Palmer monofill say it does threaten to pollute area wells and lakes given the unpredictable water table left by gravel operations that punched through the underground aquifer and the potential for contaminants to travel off the property.
Richard Harbuck, a member of the Palmer Toxic Dumping monofill opposition group as well as the local Gateway Community Council, said the concern is that Central will get a permit this time around despite the lack of substantive changes in the application.
"They're basically just doing round two," Harbuck said."Unfortunately, out here in the Valley, they're allowed to reapply for a permit over and over until finally they bust the door down."
The community council last year submitted a letter saying the site was the wrong place for a monofill, and it plans to submit another letter this week, he said.
"We don't feel this is the proper place for this type of activity given the nature of the gravel pit, the hydrology, and the wind problems associated with it, and the basic proximity to an established community," he said.
Opponents also question the company's ability to self-regulate, given Central's compliance record last year. Central, however, says opponents are making too big an issue of the company's brief history in the Mat-Su.
"A lot of people are skewing what happened to the negative, making it seem a lot worse than it really is," Durand said.
The company last week sent out mailers to 5,000 to 6,000 Valley residents in a wide circle around the fill site urging them to "Support Recycling in Alaska" and go to the company website for more information. The flier includes a link to the permit application and the admonition, "Don't let misinformation and stereotypes form your opinion … Get the facts!" above the company's phone number in Anchorage.
Durand said Central's mailer came in response to a flier circulated more locally by Palmer Toxic Dumping warning of poisoned wells, contaminated fish and windblown trash. That flier shows photos of trash and an aerial view of the proposed monofill location amid the numerous lakes of the Kepler-Bradley system. "Can there even be a worse location for a dump?" the brochure reads. "Homes, Wells, Fishing, Scenic Byway & Gateway to Palmer."
The material Central hopes to dispose of at Palmer includes everything from carpet and drywall to asbestos. Some of the asbestos will fall under state regulations that require special precautions like heavy bags, cover to make sure the toxic dust doesn't reach the air and a special cell to hold it.
The company plans to erect portable "catch" fences to snag windblown debris, according to the application. Monofill cells will be contained by soil or tire bales.
In Alaska, the state doesn't require liners to protect groundwater or monitoring wells to check for contamination. Central says it plans to make use of wells but not liners.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation requires the company to demonstrate that the base of the monofill is 10 feet above groundwater, according to an email from Lori Aldrich, DEC's solid-waste program coordinator in Anchorage.
Central says "more than 70 percent" of the actual monofill site meets that requirement and the company will use "onsite earthen materials" to create a buffer for the rest.
DEC has not made a permitting decision on the monofill, Aldrich said.
Along with the Palmer site, Central also hopes to start disposing of recycling waste at a Chugiak property owned by Eklutna Inc. but the discovery of historic contamination at that site has delayed an Anchorage Assembly decision until at least next May.
Central is in the midst of a lawsuit filed in Anchorage Superior Court against the municipality for more than $100,000 in discounted landfill fees the company says it's owed. Central says it's entitled to a 50 percent discount for recycled waste but Anchorage officials say the material in question doesn't qualify for a discounted rate.
Durand said a win in the court case won't change Central's need for a Palmer facility.
"We already went down the course of permitting and designing," he said. "With the municipal landfill, you still don't have any control of how [dump] fees will increase over time."