Tideline Construction, which for several years has accepted junked vehicles and other scrap metal and barged the loads off the island for recycling, has paused taking in cars and trucks.

“We’re just being careful,” company owner William Tonsgard said last week. 

He said some people had filed what he called “false complaints” with state regulators about water quality in front of Tideline’s operations at the 6-Mile industrial site, prompting the company to “take a pause” on accepting vehicles for recycling.

“Because of the issues with people raising false complaints, we were pausing the service and were not sure we wanted to continue receiving scrap until we got more controls and infrastructure in place,” he said in an email on Sept. 8.

Resuming collections and shipping vehicles off the island is under discussion, Public Worlds Director Tom Wetor said Sept. 8.

One problem Tideline encountered, Tonsgard said, was owners dropping off their vehicles, claiming they had drained all the fluids as required, only for company personnel to later discover that fluids remained in the vehicle.

Tideline does not have a drain rack at its site for proper collection and disposal of fluids, Tonsgard said.

The company has collected junked cars and trucks and other scrap metal from communities throughout Southeast for years, barging the stacks of steel south for recycling.

“We plan to continue collecting and shipping scrap metal from Southeast Alaska,” Tonsgard said. The pause applies only to accepting scrap metal in Wrangell at this time, he said.

The complaints in Wrangell, “even though they were unfounded, were malicious in nature and gave us pause to think about things moving forward.”

He added, “We want to provide a service we have provided for a long time. Equally important to remember is that we do this while accepting enormous responsibility of compliance with regulations.”

Tideline needs to discuss with borough officials the problem of “some vehicles not being completely drained or prepped,” he said.

While the company is not accepting vehicles in Wrangell for shipment south, the borough will continue to accept vehicles at the solid waste transfer station on the north end of the island for eventual disposal, Wetor said.

The vehicles must be drained of all fluids, he emphasized.

The borough has a fee schedule to accept scrap metal: $319.80 for a vehicle; a washer or dryer costs $40; a refrigerator or freezer costs $80.

Up until the pause, Tideline would haul metal from the borough’s transfer station to its recycling and shipping operation at 6-Mile, charging only a trucking fee to the municipality under a contract approved last fall by the assembly. The cost of paying Tideline was less expensive than the borough contracting for its own shipments south.

After Tideline put its vehicle collection service on pause this summer, the borough loaded smashed vehicles into shipping containers for a barge ride south for recycling, but lost money on the operation, Wetor said.

It cost about $3,000 to ship each container, which fetched about $2,000 from the recycler.

Other communities handle the disposal of junked vehicles differently. In Juneau, the city has a drain rack to prep the cars and trucks for disposal and then pays Tideline to take the vehicles. Juneau offers the service free to individuals, but not for vehicles owned by businesses.

Wrangell Harbormaster Steve Miller told port commissioners at a meeting on Sept. 8 that Tideline’s work is essential to clearing out abandoned boats that are scrapped. “We really need them.”