Anchorage seeks 50 acres of JBER land for a waste-to-energy plant

Anchorage is asking Congress for roughly 50 acres of federal land at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, next to the city landfill. The city wants the parcel for a planned waste-to-energy plant. The House and Senate versions of the defense bill differ on how firmly they direct the handover.

Nolan Cloutier, policy director in the Office of Mayor LaFrance, told the Anchorage Assembly Legislative Committee on Thursday that both versions of the National Defense Authorization Act carry conveyance language. The city has language "that would convey land at the landfill, at the Anchorage landfill that's adjacent to landfill that we've actually been leasing from, Jaybear for a long time, that would be conveyed to the Municipality of Anchorage for the purposes of ultimately hosting a waste-to-energy plant," Cloutier said.

Chief of Staff Suzanne Fleetgreen put the parcel at about 50 acres and said conditions of the transfer are still being worked out. The chambers split between study-oriented and transfer-oriented language. The Senate language sits in the committee report rather than the bill itself and "instructs the Department of War to more sort of study, evaluate," she said. That is "gentler language," she said. The House version instead directs the Department of War and the Department of the Interior to make roughly 49 acres available and transfer it to the Municipality of Anchorage. "So it's much more direct in terms of what we want them to do," she said.

The landfill sits on East Eagle River Loop Road. Its permitted final height is 720 feet above sea level because of its proximity to the base. Aaron Hudson, program director for the waste-to-energy project, told an Assembly committee on May 21 the plant would generate between 25 and 30 megawatts.

The request lands amid a broader pattern of federal land conveyances in Alaska, often moving through defense or infrastructure legislation. Those transfers shift control of public land to state, municipal, tribal or private hands and raise questions about development and environmental oversight. The Interior Department, for example, announced the transfer of 1.4 million acres in the Dalton Highway Utility Corridor to the State of Alaska.

Fleetgreen said the House passed its defense bill and the Senate has not. Alaska News previously covered the Senate's 50-46 vote blocking the measure, which also carries about $2.6 billion in Alaska military construction. Congress has until the end of the year to pass the defense bill. Reconciling the two chambers' land-transfer language would come after that.

"They are supportive of the transfer, so I don't think we will see delay there," Fleetgreen said of the base. "But we are still hoping for the House language."

Once the Senate acts and conferees are named, she said, the city will press the delegation on which version survives.