The borough assembly has taken the first step in setting up a new monofill site for the public and contractors to dump organic material, such as root wads, tree limbs, clean wood, dirt, rocks and other debris.
The community’s existing site is full and closed to any new material.
The assembly’s unanimous vote on March 25 started the permitting process of the new site, just across the driveway from the current dump site on Ishiyama Drive next to the outdoor shooting range.
The current site has reached its maximum capacity and borough officials said construction of a new site is “long overdue.”
The new site will be nearly twice the size of the current fill, according to a report by Public Works Director Tom Wetor to the assembly. Built in 2001, the current monofill lasted for 24 years before reaching capacity.
Monofills are landfills that only permit a single type of waste. In this case, it’s earthen materials like rocks, soil, clay or stone.
“Failure to permit or construct a new monofill will result in residents needing to find a private option for disposal of any earthen material,” Wetor wrote to the assembly. “This would likely have a dramatic effect on any current or future construction projects in Wrangell … as we are not aware of a private option to dispose of large quantities of earthen materials.”
The assembly appropriated $15,000 to start preliminary work on the project. That only covers permitting and design. Wetor estimates the cost of the total project will fall somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars — a figure that will be included in the borough’s upcoming budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
“The existing monofill will need to be reshaped, capped, ditched, revegetated and surveyed,” Wetor explained in his report. “The new monofill will need surveying for all the trees to be cleared, ditching and drainage and a path or roadway will need to be developed.”
Borough Manager Mason Villarma said the city has already filed the paperwork for some of the environmental approvals. He reiterated that the fill is not for anything hazardous.
“We couldn’t put creosote pilings in this landfill,” Villarma said.
Mayor Patty Gilbert added that biomass, tree limbs and grass clippings are all appropriate things for the public to dispose of at the fill.
With the current dump site closed and the new one not yet available, Villarma encouraged the public to use the borough’s trash transfer station on the north end of the island, if possible.
“Anything you can burn, take it out to the transfer station,” he said.
The station has a setup for safe burning of non-hazardous materials such as wood and tree limbs. Other trash brought to the station is compacted, bundled up, stuffed into a closed container and shipped to a landfill in eastern Washington state.
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